Mid-Week Message - July 29

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

Last night at the church, the movie that we watched was Remarkably Bright Creatures - judging from the comments on the Facebook post I made about the movie, I know that a lot of you have already watched this movie (and loved it), but for those of you who haven't, here is a very brief (spoiler-free) overview of it.

This is the story of a friendship between an older woman, Tova, who is a widow and who is also struggling with a deeper grief from her past; Cameron, a young man who has never had any sense of grounding and is in a particularly tumultuous moment in his life; and Marcellus, an elderly octopus in a public aquarium who is nearing the end of his life.

Towards the end of the movie, one of Tova's friends (one of the "Knitwits" - a group of women who started hanging out together to knit when their children were young) tells Tova, "You've been so busy trying to not be a burden that you've forgotten how to be a friend."

This line resonates with me, because isn't that a challenge in so much of our world? In western culture, we value independence, but independence taken to an extreme becomes individualism and isolation.  When we prize independence above everything else, we forget that we, as humans, as part of God's creation, are inter-dependent with one another.

As God says right at the beginning of Genesis, "It is not good for the human to be alone." (Genesis 2:18)

When I look around the world today, I see so many people living in silos, unconnected with other people.  Sometimes it is because, like Tova, they "don't want to be a burden" on other people.  Sometimes it is because socializing is a muscle, and if we don't practice socializing, we lose the ability to do so (and then trying to be social creatures becomes a very scary prospect indeed).  Sometimes it is because we have been raised right from our childhood to think that we should be independent, and habits are hard to break.

But this is where I think that the church comes in - where the church can possibly play a role.  Because church, at its best, is a place where we are together; a place where we are in community with one another.  The church isn't one person alone.  When we church (and yes, I like to use "church" as a verb!), we do it together.  No one is alone.

And so I wonder if, perhaps, church might be part of the remedy to the isolation that is so present in the world.  Is there someone that you know who might be in need of a community to be a part of?  Who do you know that you might be able to say to, "Come, be part of us; come, join together with other people so that we can be better together?"

For it is not good for a human to be alone.  We are created in the image of God; and the God in whose image we are created is community (the Trinity, the three-in-one and the one-in-three).

And no one is ever a burden where there is love.

(And if you haven't seen this movie yet, and if you have a Netflix subscription, I highly recommend it!)

Moving on to announcements this week.

• Worship on Sunday - Worship this week will be at Long Reach at 9:15 and Westfield and Facebook Live at 11:15. We are continuing our Seussian Summer, and this week we will be reading How the Grinch Stole Christmas (which is the book that inspired this whole summer series!). We'll have a bit of a Christmas-y theme going on this week, but we'll be reading part of the Christmas Story that we don't usually read at Christmas time, the story about what Herod did after the magi left - Matthew 2:11-18 - along with part of an Advent reading - Isaiah 40:3-5.

• Movie Night - next Tuesday, we are going to continue the Christmas theme and we will be watching The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. (Yes, this is based on the book that you might remember from your childhood! And it is an excellent adaptation of the book - I was worried when I went to watch it the first time as I loved the book so much, but the movie does the book justice!) If you want to read more or watch the trailer, you can click here.

• Vacation Bible School (VBS) - This year, VBS is happening on August 12 from 8:30-3:30 at Long Reach United Church. This year's theme will be Music and the Bible, and Gwen and Sarah are working away to come up with fun activities for the day. We also have a lifeguard hired for the afternoon, so after lunch we will walk across the road and go swimming at the wharf. All children (from any of our churches or from outside the church) are invited to attend. There is no cost, and lunch and snacks will be provided.

• Church Picnic - for those of you who like to plan ahead, this year the church picnic will be on Sunday September 13 at the cottage of Anne and Ross Titus. More details to follow closer to the time!

• Bible Study - another announcement looking ahead to the fall. We have a regular Wednesday morning Bible Study, but someone approached me recently and asked if there was any possibility of an evening bible study so that people who work or go to school during the day have an opportunity to take part. If this describes you, please let me know! If we have interest (we would probably need 4 or 5 people to make it a go), the next step will be to figure out a day, time, and place to meet.

• Bulletin Covers - a reminder, as you go about your fun summertime activities, to please send any pictures that you think would make good bulletin covers to Daniel in the office. Ideally, bulletin cover pictures are in "portrait" orientation (ie tall rather than wide), and they can be a picture of anything - landscapes, wildlife, our church buildings, people (make sure that you have their permission - of the permission of parents/guardians in the case of children - before sending us people pictures).

• Office Email - a reminder that the office email changed earlier this year, and is now office@tworiverspastoralcharge.com (the old email address will still get to Daniel, but you'll receive a pingback telling you to update your email address book to the new one)

Thank You Corner - this week's thank you goes out to Daniel Wheaton, our guest preacher last Sunday. When I first approached Daniel to ask if he would consider it, I told him that I knew that it wasn't part of his job description, but that I also knew that he had a powerful story to share. He asked for some time to think about it, but a week or so later he agreed. Thank you, Daniel, for offering such a powerful and thought-provoking message on Sunday. After the service, someone commented that it was a great sermon, but it's too bad that he was preaching to the choir. I replied that as Affirming Churches, it is good to be reminded of just how important the work we are doing is; and that he challenged us to think of ways that we can draw our circles even wider.

If you missed his reflection on Sunday, Daniel has shared it on his website - you can read or watch it by clicking here.

(And a secondary thank you to the other members of the Pride Week Service planning committee - Mary Kennedy-Fulton from here at Two Rivers, Rev. Linton Worrall and Heather McDonald from Quispamsis United, and Myra Hughes-Singh from Harmony United!)

For a closing thought this week, many of you know that I'm a bit of a word nerd, and one of the podcasts that I listen to each week is called Words Unravelled, all about the English Language. The episode a couple of weeks ago explored accents, and it was a fascinating conversation. You can watch the episode on their YouTube channel by clicking here (or you can find Word Unravelled in your favourite podcast app and look for the episode from July 15).

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)