Monday, March 1:Our Heritage, Our Community - A Christian Diaspora

To me, the Diaspora is a most cherished treasure of Judaism and Christianity. To know and to feel a community of love, family, tradition, and religion that is worldwide and thousands of years old are things that do not happen accidentally. Although we may have been born many miles away from Arlington, we all have been part of the Clarendon UMC community before we became involved in this congregation.

I am grateful for many who encouraged, supported, and prayed for me over the years, beginning with Elma & John Minno and Nan & Larry Manning, the Tarpley sisters, Barbara & Fred Gilbert, and Courtney and Betty Lou Sheffield. Most recently, the women’s ministry (UMW) and study groups have reminded me of two great Hebrew women – Naomi & Ruth. The Book of Ruth 1:1-16 said, following the deaths of Naomi’s husband and two sons:

… with her two daughters-in-law she left the place where she had been living, and took the road home to Judah. Then Naomi said to her two daughters-in-law, “Go back, both of you, to your mothers’ homes. May the Lord keep faith with you, as you have kept faith with the dead and with me;” … Ruth clung to her… “Do not urge me to go back and desert you”, Ruth answered. “Where you go, I will go, and where you stay, I will stay, Your people shall be my people, and your God my God. Where you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. I swear a solemn oath before the Lord your God: nothing but death shall divide us.”

Amazingly, our Monday evening gatherings have brought us into a new family, and we are mini-Naomis and Ruths. We are joined together by faith, not blood, and in our support of one another, through prayer face-to-face, or with prayer-buddies from afar. What strength and glory have come from this 21st century example of “Your God shall be my God”! I think back to those who have left us, & I feel that even death did not divide us… we have the memory of their love and support, and they lived their faith. That is the special legacy of Clarendon United Methodist Church.

Our Father who art in heaven, we thank you for this church that has breathed life into the Judeo-Christian diaspora in so many of its activities, and the people who worship here. We are grateful for those who came before us, for those with whom we worship now, and for the faces of the future of this Church who are new to our world. Amen.

Karen Darner