May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be always with you!
Most weeks, I begin this e-mail with a reflection on something that is happening in the world; and this week the decision about what to write about is pretty clear. Scrolling through my social media, or listening to the news on CBC radio, the top story is always related to the inauguration of the new US President that happened on Monday, and the various things that have unfolded since.
I'm not going to dive into party politics (partisan politics don't have a place in the church), but our faith calls us to be lower-case-p political. Jesus taught us that the greatest commandments were to love God with our whole being, and to love our neighbours as our selves, and if we are truly loving of our neighbours (either our neighbours right next door, or our neighbours on the other side of the planet), then we need to care about what happens to our neighbours. And this love leads us to be political. (Fun fact: the word "politics" comes to us from the Greek, "affiairs of the city" or "affairs of the citizens." And so as soon as we are concerned about or involved in things that impact people, we are being political.)
I don't know about you, but at this moment in time, I am very concerned about so many vulnerable groups right now - both in the US and around the world. As of Monday, transgender people in the US have had their full personhood denied by their government. Immigrant families are at risk. Refugees fleeing horrific situations of war and violence have been denied refuge.
But then on Monday evening, a Facebook friend (a friend's father) back in Thunder Bay posted part of Mary's song on Facebook - part of the song that is sometimes called The Magnificat after it's opening line: "My soul declares the glory of the Lord." The part that he posted was from the second half of the song:
God has brought down the powerful from their thrones.
God has raised up the lowly.
God has filled the hungry with good things.
God has sent the rich away empty. (Luke 1:52-53)
Last Advent, when I was telling Mary's story from her perspective, we came to this song on the last Sunday before Christmas - December 22. One thing that I pointed out is that Mary is proclaiming this vision in the present tense. She doesn't say "God will fill the hungry with good things"; she says "God has filled the hungry with good things." In her prophetic vision, Mary catches a glimpse of the world through God's eyes, and she sees a time that is coming when all of this will have already happened.
This song is one of my sources of hope - one of the things that sustains me when the world seems to be falling apart around me, and when I am tempted to be fearful or anxious about the future. Even though it may not happen in my lifetime, because of Mary's song (and more specifically, because of the grammar of Mary's song), I trust that this time will come some day.
If you want to read my full reflection on Mary's song from back in December, you can read it by clicking here.
And in the meantime, while we wait for this time? I think that loving our neighbours means acting, in whatever small ways we have available to us, as if the time that Mary sings about is already here. Making sure that hungry people do have good things to eat. Finding ways to lift up and uphold the vulnerable people in our time and place. Working to redistribute power more evenly in our society. In other words - loving our neighbours in all of the big and small ways that we have available to us.
And know that when we do so, we are already starting to live in the kingdom of God.
Moving on to announcements for this week:
Worship on Sunday will be at Summerville at 9:15 and Westfield and on Facebook Live at 11:15. This week, we are reading part of Paul's letter to the church in Corinth where he talks about how the church is the Body of Christ - 1 Corinthians 12: 12-31.
A reminder that I am organizing New Member / Confirmation classes to begin in February this year. If you are interested in becoming a member; if you have a teenager in your life who is interested in being confirmed; or even if you are already a member and were confirmed when you were young, but would like to explore your faith from your current perspective, please get in touch with me!
"Stop! In the Name of Love," the Valentine's themed concert by the Westfield United Church Choir is coming up in a couple of weeks on February 13 at 7pm. Admission by freewill offering, going towards the work of the church. The music is going to explore all different aspects of love - from romantic love to friendship love to love for creation to God's love and everything in-between. You can see the poster by clicking here, and please help us spread the word!
Bulletin Covers - thank you to everyone who has started submitting photographs and art to Elaine for her to use as bulletin covers. She is hoping to start using them in February. There is no "submission deadline" for these so at any time, if you have pictures or art that you think would make a good bulletin cover (for either a specific church season or for a general Sunday bulletin), please pass them along to the office at wuc@nb.sympatico.ca and Elaine will add it to her file.
Looking ahead:
Asking the Big Questions: February 17
Session and Official Board meetings: February 19
UCW-led Service, celebrating 100 years of the contribution of women to the United Church of Canada: March 2
Ash Wednesday: March 5 (7pm, Westfield)
Word Day of Prayer: March 9 (7pm at Westfield)
And I think that's it for today. I do want to extend a huge thank you to everyone who submitted their reports for the annual report on time; as well as a huge thank you to Elaine who is currently hard at work compiling them so that they can be printed and circulated electronically ahead of our annual meetings.
For a closing thought, I want to circle back to where I began, with the intersection of faith and politics. It isn't often that a sermon makes the national and international news, but a sermon preached at Washington National Cathedral on Tuesday morning is. The Rt. Rev. Mariann Edgar Budde, Episcopal Bishop of the diocese of Washington, preached at a prayer service with the new president, vice president, and their families in attendance. She preached a message of unity, a message of reconciliation, a message of love, a message of mercy - in other words, she preached the gospel of Jesus Christ. As a preacher, we learn that good preaching should "comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable" and she knocked it out of the park with this one. And it is also a great example of a prophetic voice speaking truth to power. If you haven't had a chance to listen to it yet, you can watch the whole sermon by clicking here - it is about 15 minutes long, so if you don't have time to watch the whole thing, if you jump to the 12:25 point, you can hear the part where she addresses the president directly. (In general, I don't think that sermons should be applauded - a sermon isn't a performance, after all - but at the end of this one I felt like I should be giving her a standing ovation!)
And with that message of hope, I will close off for this week. (Along with my apologies for getting this e-mail out a day late this week - I've had a couple of busy days.)
Blessings to you and yours, today and always!
Kate.
Rev. Kate Jones
Two Rivers Pastoral Charge
(506) 757-2201 (office)
(506) 343-1307 (mobile)
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)
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