Mid-Week Message - December 3

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be always with you!

It is a beautiful, snowy, winter wonderland as I look out my window this morning! I had a doctor's appointment earlier today, and they were playing Christmas music in their office and one of the songs I heard was "It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas..." Indeed!

But here in the church, we are still in the season of Advent, the season of anticipation, the season of waiting, the season of Not-Yet-Christmas.  This coming Sunday, on the second Sunday in Advent, we will light our Advent Candle of Love.

My favourite quote about love comes from a novel - from one of the novels of Madeleine L'Engle, A Wind in the Door.  One of the characters (Proginoskes, a cherubim) tells another character (Meg, a human):  "Love isn't how you feel. It's what you do."  I've sometimes re-worded this concept by saying that "Love is an action verb."

(Also - now I've craving a re-read of A Wind in the Door. It is a beautiful exploration of what love is. Love is truly seeing, truly knowing another being - what the book refers to as "naming" the other.  Maybe I'll have to put her Time Trilogy on my Christmas vacation reading list!)

I don't think that love can be love if it is something that is limited to our hearts, limited to a feeling.  Love leads to action - we live our love out loud.

In this season, we have lots of opportunities to live our love.  We buy gifts for the people we care about.  We open our homes to our friends and family members.  We send cards to people we haven't seen in a while.

But in this season, many of us also take the opportunity to live our love for people we may never meet.  Just looking at examples around our churches - we support Christmas families, providing a meal and gifts where they might otherwise have none; we give "White Gifts" to Avenue B, Hestia House, and Coverdale; many of us make extra donations to Mission and Service that supports the work of the church across Canada and around the world.

All of this is an outpouring of love.

And I think that all love is truly God's love pouring through us.  We receive God's love, and then the love that we give is that same love that we are passing along.  And because God's love is infinite, limit-less, endlessly abundant, this means that we will never run out of love to share.  Love is not a zero-sum game - just because I give love over here doesn't diminish the amount of love I have to give over there.

One example of this that I've shared before is that when my eldest nephew was born, I couldn't believe how much love I had for him.  When his sister was born 2 years later, I had just as much love for her, but I still had the same amount of love for my nephew.  I didn't have to divide a finite amount of love between them - when I had someone new to love, I had twice as much love to give!

This Sunday, we will light our candle for love, and ponder all of the ways that we live our love in the world.

Moving on to announcements for this week:

• Worship on Sunday will be at Long Reach at 9:15 and Westfield and on Facebook Live at 11:15. This week, we'll hear the story of the person (sometimes thought of as an Innkeeper) who welcomed Mary and Joseph to Bethlehem - our reading will be Luke 2:1-7.  ALSO - this Sunday is our Christmas Pageant!  The Sunday School at Long Reach has been practicing; and at Westfield we are going to have a Full-Congregation Participatory Pageant. You aren't going to want to miss this!!!

• Christmas Families:  As in previous years, Westfield is working through Christmas Exchange to provide a Christmas meal to families in our community.  Grocery store gift cards (including WalMart) can be placed in the offering plate or in the box on the back table at the church.  Long Reach and Summerville will each be supporting a family identified by MCS - gift card donations can be placed in the offering plate, or given directly to Anne Titus (LR) or Bette Ashley (SV).  Donations will be collected up until December 14.

• White Gift Sundays - This year, our Church in the World Committee has decided to split the three organizations between the three churches. Donations will be collected up until December 14; and we will acknowledge these donations during worship that day.

  Summerville:  Hestia House. Wish List:  Shampoo, socks, deodorant, hand cream, gift cards, lip balm, children of all ages, games, books.colouring books,crayons, gloves, hats,socks.

  Long Reach:  Coverdale.  Wish List:  Women’s personnel products, Shampoo, razors, deodorant, hand cream, lip balm, gift cards (Giant Tiger, Dollar Store, Tim Hortons), gloves, hats, socks

  Westfield:  Avenue B Harm Reduction. Wish List:  Men’s underwear, deodorant, socks, gloves, gift cards of any kind, Ensure drink, lip balm, hats

• National Day for Remembrance and Action on Violence Against Women - we mark December 6 each year with a service of lament, grieving the fact that gender-based violence is still a thing in our world. And at the same time, it is also a service of hope, because we trust that the world won't always be this way - that a day will come when we won't have to gather on December 6 each year because gender-based violence will be a thing of the past.  Our service will be on Saturday evening at 7pm at Long Reach United Church.

• UCW Bake Sale - also happening on Saturday, but in the morning! Thank you to Cindy for making the poster (which you can see by clicking here) - even though the poster says 9-12, they often sell out early, so you will want to plan to get there closer to 9 if you want the best selection, rather than waiting until 11:30!  (Saturday morning is also when the Fullerton's are having their Christmas Sale at the farm store in Long Reach - you can make a morning of it, and hit up both sales!)

• UCW Christmas Communion Service - our Westfield UCW is busy this month, and they are hosting their Christmas Communion Service on Wednesday December 10 at 7pm at Westfield United Church.  You do not need to be a UCW member, or identify as a woman to attend this service - they host it for the whole pastoral charge.  It is a beautiful way to begin the shift from Advent into Christmas each year.  (With special thanks to Lynn Wack for agreeing once again to be our musician at this service!)

• Queerly Beloved - our next Queer Spiritual Gathering will be this Sunday evening, December 7, at 7pm in the parlour at Westfield United. This is a queer-centered gathering, but is open to straight and cisgender friends and allies. You can see the poster by clicking here, and please feel free to pass along the invitation to anyone you know who might be interested.

• Study Invitation - I normally focus these announcements on things happening in our churches, but this week I have an external invitation to share. A final-year student at the Atlantic School of Theology, Jacqui Moraal, is doing her graduate research project on "How does worship in the United Church of Canada affect congregants' understanding of and relationship with the Holy Spirit?"  If you would like to talk with her about how you understand and experience the Holy Spirit, you can see her poster by clicking here or emailing her at jmoraalast@outlook.com  (I have had a chance to get to know Jacqui through the AST Board of Governors - she has been a student governor and I am one of the United Church appointed governors. She is a fabulous human being!)
  

Thank You Corner - this week's thank you goes out to our Decorating Elves at all three churches!  Last Sunday we got to see both Summerville and Long Reach decorated for Christmas, and this coming Sunday we will get to see what the elves at Long Reach have been up to!  Thank you to everyone who offered a couple of hours of time (and a bit of muscle power) to get this done - decorating is not one of my gifts, and I truly appreciate the contributions from those of you who have the gift.

For a closing thought this week, I want to share a link to a very powerful poem that I heard earlier this week called "Advent Isn't Afraid of the Dark" written by Rev. Betsy Hogan, a recently retired minister in Halifax.  The Royal Canadian College of Organists (RCCO) in Halifax always hold a festival of carols on the first Monday in December, and this poem opened that service on Monday. To hear the poem read, you can click here.

Blessings to you and yours, today and always!

Kate.

Rev. Kate Jones

Two Rivers Pastoral Charge

(506) 757-2201 (office)

(506) 343-1307 (mobile)

www.tworiverspastoralcharge.com

Pronouns:  she/her/hers

"Teacher, what is the greatest commandment in the law?"

Jesus replied, "You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your being, and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment.  And the second is like it: "You must love your neighbour as you love yourself."

(Matthew 22:36-39)