Hi Hyde Park Team,

Sunday we focused on the Serenity prayer. Such a prayer is especially appropriate for the summer season as Hurricanes must top of the list of physical natural forces we can’t change. 

Something we can change is our hurricane preparation. Long-time Florida residents probably have their go-to piece of advise. Mine is= Eat down your freezer storage now from oldest to newest. Replace the space with containers of clean drinking water for ice later. While, you’re at it, use those unusual refrigerated ingredients like capers, you bought for that one recipe that one time. 

There are official versions of preparation guides at Publix and downloadable from wusf.org or your county’s website. (Hillsborough’s is very good.)

One crucial thing I never see in those guides, Meet your neighbors. Geographically-close community can give you somewhere to run, provide a chainsaw, or share some generated power. If you evacuate, your neighbors can let know you what happened to your tree or give you updates on flooded streets. 

Good community, as well as good mission practice, is built on mutual relationship. All of the benefits are as much for us to give, as to receive. You can help each other find a missing cat, or blown away trashcan. You can help host the neighborhood gathering dedicated to grill all themeat before it spoils.” Maybe your porch becomes the hang out because your wifi is first to be restored. 

It’s a bit like the story of Jesus feeding the crowd of five thousand with 2 fish and 5 loaves. It isn’t just a story about the divine power displayed, or the training of the disciples to faithfully serve others or respond to an inconceivable request. It is also a story of the crowd sharing their meager lunch offerings with one another. In any neighborhood in the world, even seat mates in a row of airplane travel, neighbors can be an essential relationship of safety and comfort. And like the Bible story teaches, it helps when you bring snacks to share.

So now is the time to make some bread or cookies but maybe forego using the capers. Knock on some doors or chat while taking out the garbage. Let me know if you make some friends or discover something good. Can’t wait to hear about it.

Grace and Peace,

On March 12, 1899, three families from the former First Methodist Church in downtown Tampa gathered in a two-room schoolhouse on the corner of Magnolia and Platt streets to start a Sunday School for neighborhood children. They sang “I Love to Tell the Story,” and the infancy of our congregation was born.

Over the last few months, we have been blessed to hear stories of our history from a wonderful team of writers in our church, led by the Rev. Dr. Jim Harnish, our long-time senior pastor from 1992 to 2014. Here are their stories:

Dear Hyde Park Family,

As our nation observes the inauguration of a new President this Monday, I offer this prayer, the same I have provided you on past Inauguration Days, regardless of who has been elected.

May we join in prayer, not only for our elected leaders, but for our own renewed commitment to God as followers of the way of Jesus.

A Prayer for Inauguration Day

Gracious and Holy God, whose mind conceived a world resplendent with beauty and goodness, whose heart envisioned a people governed by your love, and whose timeless eye has witnessed the rise and fall of history’s kingdoms, we pray to you as a nation humbled by the burdens of freedom.

This precious gift you have granted to us – the free will to choose our own destiny, to enjoy the fruit of our prudence, and to live with the consequences of our mistakes – summons us to a wisdom beyond ourselves, and to serve an interest greater than our own.

So, O Lord, on the day when we inaugurate a new term for the leaders of this land, clarify our commitment to you and the aims of your kingdom. Remind us that our primary citizenship is defined neither by borders or ideologies, but by a Love that called us into being, and calls us into service.

Grant to Donald Trump and J.D. Vance a wisdom to discern the common good from political expedience, the way of justice from the way of disparity, the embrace of self-evident equality from the division of harmful self-interest, and the currency of love from the gluttony of greed.

We are a people in need today, for too many yet sleep in hunger and wander the streets without shelter. There are those whose livelihoods are at risk from economic hardship and natural disasters. Our world is rife with conflict, and our cities are marred by violence. We yearn for the day when every valley will be raised up, every mountain brought low, and all our rough places made plain.

Yet, in all things, and even throughout the course of this inaugural day, remind us that our hope and promise rest not in manufactured systems of power, but in you alone. Forgive us, O Lord, for relying on our government to grant that which only you can provide: security from all harm, an ethic of love, and a mutual embrace of one another as your children.

Therefore, call us together, as your holy people and the living body of your son Jesus Christ, to live out your bidding as builders of your kingdom. As we pray for our President and all of our elected officials, lead us into new endeavors to do justice, love mercy, and walk humbly with you. Show us more opportunities to make your love real here and abroad. Empower us to effect change in, through, and even despite our systems of government.

And may the inaugural words of your son Jesus Christ be true in its telling today:

“Today, the Scriptures have been fulfilled in your hearing.”

In your holy name we pray, Amen.

Grace and Peace,