Mid-Week Message - July 30

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

This coming Sunday, the question behind the sermon is going to be "What is the church?" and so that question has been simmering in my brain this week.

This morning, Joan and I went to the Snow Centre in Hampton to lead a worship service for the residents there (we go 5 or 6 times a year to do this). We gather in their big activity room with a piano at one end, and a podium with a microphone set up. No candles, no crosses, no stained glass.  Is this church?

Last Friday, Elaine and I went out for lunch together to celebrate our birthdays (3 months late). We laughed, we talked, we did no church business over the meal (we try and keep that to the church office).  Is this church?

Last night, a group of us gathered in the parlour at Westfield United and watched the movie Maudie together - not a movie about church or with any explicit religious content, though we were in the church building.  Is this church?

This time next week, I'll be out in Calgary getting ready to jump into a week of meetings with the United Church General Council being held at a big Convention Centre there.  I and the other commissioners (15 from each Region of the church), plus the staff members of the church, will be discussing, debating, and voting on church polity; we will be electing the next Moderator; we will share meals together; and yes, we will pause to worship and sing and pray together.  Will this be church?

My answer to all of these questions is yes.  The church is the people, not the building; and as Jesus said, where two or three are gathered in his name, he is there among us.  To me, church is the community of people more than it is the building we gather in and more than it is the specifics of the activities we are doing.

Yes, there are specific activities that we, as the church, are called to do - things like worshipping, serving the world, growing in faith, sharing our faith with others - but we can do these things in so many different places and so many different ways.

One of my friends likes to use the word "church" as a verb - we are churching whenever we are together, and being the Body of Christ!  We are churching when we are listening to each other and what is going on in our lives.  We are churching when we are praying for each other.  We are churching when we break bread together. We are churching when we are doing the hard work of figuring out how to BE the church.

(Just a preview of where we are going on Sunday morning!)

Moving on to announcements for this week:

• Worship on Sunday will be at 9:15 at Long Reach and 11:15 at Westfield and on Facebook Live. This week we'll be reading another quirky story from the bible - no snakes this time! - from the New Testament this time. We'll be reading Acts 20:7-12 - a story about a time when the Apostle Paul was maybe just a little bit too long-winded in his preaching.

• Tuesday Night Movies - next Tuesday (August 5), we will be watching the movie If, starring Ryan Reynolds. The movie starts at 7pm, in the parlour at Westfield United Church.  (With thanks to Brenda Brooks - and her tech support Joe - for making sure that the movies continue while I'm away!)

• Pride Week Events:

  Parade - Saturday August 16; meet in the Red Rose Parking Lot at 12:30pm; Pride is all about being yourself, so wear whatever you are comfortable in, and feel free to bring a sign with an Affirming message. (I will have extra signs, so don't worry if you don't have one!) The past couple of parades have been hot and sunny, so you may want to bring a water bottle too!

  Worship - Sunday August 17; 10am at Quispamsis United Church. Our Two Rivers congregations are joining together with the other Affirming churches for this service (ie no worship in any of our buildings that day). Carpooling is strongly encouraged. If you can't make it in-person, you can join the service on Zoom by going to the Quispamsis United Church website and clicking the button that says "Zoom" on the top right corner of the page.

  Senior Social - Kindred Home Care, a company run by a couple with Two Rivers Connections (Heather and Jeannie Rice-Sawyer), is hosting a Senior Social on Tuesday August 12 from 1-5pm at Chroma NB (200 Carmarthen Street). You can click here for more details, and please feel free to share this invitation with anyone you know who might be interested!

• General Council - As I mentioned earlier, I am going to be at General Council next week, part of the national decision-making body of the United Church of Canada that gathers every 3 years. If you would like to learn more about what is going on, you can go to the General Council Website by clicking here. On this page, you can read the proposals that we will be discussing and voting on (especially for the #ChruchGeeks like me out there!), you can learn about the nominees for Moderator, you can read regular news briefings that will be added throughout the meeting, and you can even watch the meeting live via the livestream. While I am in Calgary, I am going to try and post updates on the Two Rivers Pastoral Charge Facebook Page about what is going on at GC, and what I've been up to. (There will be a Mid-Week Message next week and the week after, sent from Calgary, but they will likely be a bit shorter than usual as my days are going to be busy!)

• Apology to the 2SLGBTQIA+ Community - as part of the General Council gathering, the United Church of Canada will be apologizing for the ways that we, as the church, have harmed the 2SLGBTQIA+ community, both within the church and outside of the church. Those of you who have been around the church for a decade or two will likely remember that the United Church of Canada was not as open and affirming as it is today; and some of you who have explored the United Church outside of our Two Rivers spaces may also be aware that the United Church is not yet universally affirming. I've got two links for you here:  for more information about the apology (including how to watch it), you can click here; and to watch a play that was presented at the 2018 General Council exploring our history and why an apology is needed, you can click here. (You may want to have a box of tissues handy if you watch the second one - it is based on real letters that were sent, and real things that were said both before and after the 1988 decision that sexual orientation wouldn't be a barrier to full participation in the United Church, including ordination.)
  

Thank You Corner - thank you this week goes to the Scouting units who meet at Westfield United Church (Beavers, Cubs, and Scouts) who are taking time this summer to scrape the old paint off the shed beside the church and will be re-painting it when they are done. (I'm also told that they disposed of a wasp nest that was being built on it.) Your work is much appreciated!

For a closing thought this week, after worship on Sunday, more than one person wanted to talk about a snake on a stick as a medical symbol, properly called the Rod of Asclepius.  This is a different symbol than the bronze snake that Moses made and lifted up on a pole in the Sinai Desert, and has a different origin story.  If you want to learn more about the Rod of Asclepius (and the Caduceus, another snake symbol that is often confused with the Rod of Asclepius), you can watch a short video by clicking here (I promise that the only snakes in this video are simple animations!).

What fascinates me the most is that we have multiple ancient cultures who all associate snakes with healing. Snakes have always been feared across cultures for their potential to be venomous, so I don't think that it is possible that our ancient ancestors weren't afraid of snakes. I wonder if it has to do with the fact that snakes shed their skin as they grow, and appear to be re-born or renewed or resurrected?

Anyways, enough snake talk for today!

May God bless you and yours, today and always (and may you only encounter snakes if you like snakes)!

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)