Dear Tenants, May 17, 2020
I hope you were able to enjoy yesterday’s nice weather in one form or another! Remember, tomorrow begins Phase 1 of our reopening strategy which includes our maintenance department and transportation. We will have strict guidelines, precautions, and processes when taking rides. We will provide you with those on a separate sheet this coming week. In the meantime, please enjoy this message from Pastor Elizabeth.
Stay safe & healthy,
Dominick M. Manfredo
Executive Director / CEO
MESSAGE FROM OUR CHAPLAIN 5-17-2020
An Unknown god
“For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you…”
(Acts 17: 23)
How awful to think that our God may still be unknown in the world today especially during these tumultuous times. The thought that there are still people in the world who have built their hope on something that is false. Wait a minute, could that be a lot of us? Could we be placing some of our hopes on “unknown gods”? Even within our faith, can we be placing our hopes on things that are not of God? Are we scared because the stock market has gone crazy and our hard-earned money may be gone? Are we worried because we may not have a job when the country reopens? Will we be able to keep our belongings when all is said and done through this time in our history? These things can become unknown gods. Objects and money may be the things that we come to worship. Yes, we do need some money and things in order to survive, but when they become things that we covet, then they are a hindrance and not a help.
A few years ago, I was in a meeting with my financial advisor and he reminded me of a story about my mother and the last time the stock market took a bad hit. He told me that my mother took a phone call from him and asked him how he was doing. This caught him off guard because he was used to people yelling at him about their money issues. This was the first time someone had stopped and asked how he and his family were working through the tragedy. My mother was a woman of great faith and she wanted him to know that all was well because of a deep faith in a “known” God. Money wasn’t something that truly mattered to my mother at that time, but the peace of others during a difficult time was what honestly counted. I have chosen to follow in her footsteps. After all, she was a woman of great wisdom. She understood that our God would take care of us in all circumstances.
Later, after my mother passed, my father remarried. When he passed, his second wife, as executrices, chose to be hurtful and not allow my brother or myself anything that belonged to my parents without paying for it. There were several keepsakes that I wanted, but would have to pay for them if they were to be mine. A couple of those items were my mother’s jewelry, my grandmother’s silverware, the Bible I gave my dad, and baby albums of my brother and myself. I prayed about it and realized that I didn’t need those items. Yes, these things were of deep sentimental value, but I still had the memories. How much stuff do we really need anyway? “Blessed be God, because He has not rejected my prayer or removed His steadfast love from me.” (Psalm 66:20) His steadfast love in this case was His peace. I was blessed for it and have forgiven because of it😊
The difference between a known and an unknown God is HOPE. If one chooses to believe in and know Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit, there is truth, a desired anticipation, and a trust which comes with that which is known. Therefore, the opposite is true. There is only hopelessness in something that is unknown. Is there fulfillment in something unknown? Can a true confidence be found in what is unknown? We should be grateful to be able to rely on something known, someone who proved to be true and only gave hope through their existence, their death and resurrection. These are tangible, trust-filled things that we should choose not to deny, but to walk firmly alongside. God, as human in Jesus, became a part of our suffering on the cross. That is someone that we need to get to know. He chose to wallow in the heart of OUR matter. He got to the root of OUR being; pain and suffering. He chose to show us, His creation, that He gets our anguish and misery. Don’t we need someone who identifies with our deepest level of pain and helps us to work through it with unfathomable love? Our creator chose to know His creation and turned around and showed His creation that we can know Him as well. John 14: 18-20 says just this, “I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you. In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live. On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.” Jesus states emphatically that He is a part of us and we of Him. We are united, tethered together, family! Jesus is known so we are known, loved, cherished and identified in and with Christ.
Five months ago, I lost a beautiful friend (52), who otherwise very healthy, died of an unknown brain tumor. In a way this was a test of faith. Yes, the questions came. Why did this happen to such a vibrant life? Why did she have to die so young? Why were her 3 boys and husband left without their mother and wife? Why were her fifth-grade students being subjected to this pain? Why? Why? Why? The questions all came in the form of prayer and because we have a known God the answers to these questions and so many more will be answered in His time. There is much hope in that. Continued living can take place. One foot can be put in front of the other because we can talk with our Creator, our Comforter. A lot of time has been and continues to be spent in pain with this Consoler of my heartache.
There are many people who are enduring boatloads of pain during this crisis. Please sit with them, pray with them and show them that there is a known God. He can help us through our angst, worries, wows, and sorrow always. He is, after all, family.
”He (Jesus) was destined before the foundation of the world, but was revealed at the end of the ages for your sake. Through him you have come to trust in God, who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, so that your faith and hope are set on God.”
(1 Peter 1:20-21)
Blessings,
Pastor Elizabeth
