MCCC Weekly Update – March 28, 2022
WOW do we have a full schedule this month! If I have missed anything, please reply to this email so I can keep everyone updated.
I have a TWO NEW ANNOUNCEMENTS I would like to share with you. Kathleen Leigh Lewarchick, a new attendee at MCCC, is currently helping to create new events for our Youth Groups which is absolutely WONDERFUL news! She has plans in the works for an event in April, and either Chad or I will keep you posted when that date is set. Also, Kathleen’s daughter, Charlotte, has organized a benefit concert for the NICU at Cleveland Clinic, where Charlotte began her first 3 weeks of life. It will be held at First Congregational Church of Hudson (47 Aurora Street, hudson, Oh) at 1:30pm. As a “NICU Graduate,” she is now performing research with The Cleveland Clinic Immunology Lab at Western Reserve Academy. She has truly come full circle and wants to help more premature babies succeed. Accomplished youth instrumentalists and vocalists from NE Ohio will perform in this 90-minute benefit concert by children, for children. A variety of talented youth performers will be featured, including the performance organizer, and flautist, Miss Charlotte Hooker. Please see the attached flyer to purchase tickets, make a donation, or find out more details. This program is underwritten by Charlotte’s family, 3 generations of Cleveland Clinic patients! What an amazing young lady and family we have in our midst!
Don’t forget that Wednesday, from 7-8pm is our Zoom book study night, and this Thursday is our Loaves & Fishes Meal in the Fellowship Hall, from 5-6:30pm! Hope you can join us for both these events this week! In the meantime as you go about your everyday living, remember to spread a smile and be kind to all you encounter. Also please continue prayers for Ukraine and people throughout the world in need.
Blessings to all my Church Family,
Sandi
*Featured Image is “Brazen Beauty” by Rev. Lisle Gwynn Garrity | @sanctifiedart
Inspired by John 12:1-8; Acrylic on raw canvas with digital drawing
Click here for a message from the artist…
In the chapter just before this, Lazarus dies and Jesus weeps. But after being laid in the tomb, Lazarus is raised and made well. This act solidifies for the chief priests and Pharisees that Jesus is a dangerous threat. In response, they order for his arrest and plot how they will kill him. Jesus retreats from public ministry, hiding out in the wilderness in Ephraim. As the passover nears, people begin to wonder: “Will Jesus be here?”
Despite the threats mounting, Jesus does return. On his way to Jerusalem, he stops in Bethany, seeking refuge and comfort in the home of his friends. Martha cooks a feast, and Lazarus—healthy and alive— joins him at the table. In resistance to death, as an act of extravagant love, Mary anoints Jesus with a fragrance that fills the whole room. Her actions could appear impulsive, but if you were
saying your last goodbye to someone you loved, how would you act?
This image began as a painting on raw canvas. With fluid strokes of paint, I allowed the colors to run and bleed into each other. As I drew Mary kneeling, I omitted the other details in the scene, removing Jesus’ feet, the other guests, the table full of food. I wanted to focus on Mary’s brazen act of pouring out the expensive perfume, a commodity valued at a year’s worth of wages. The luxurious liquid is expansive, flowing out toward us as the viewer. It bleeds into the red, foreshadowing the blood Jesus will soon shed. The vessel she holds is lined with gold, a reference to the ancient Japanese practice of Kintsugi, of repairing broken pottery with gold lacquer. The art of Kintsugi
embellishes the cracks and transforms a shattered vessel into a new object of beauty. In this embodied act of worship, Mary is practicing Kintsugi—boldly celebrating the beauty of life even as death approaches.
—Rev. Lisle Gwynn Garrity
