Mid-Week Message - March 11

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

This winter - despite some of the weather in the past week or so, it's not spring yet - but this winter, especially the past month or so, I've been thinking a lot about church.  What is the church?  Why church?  How can we church?

It is no secret that the mainline Protestant church is struggling these days, across the board. Attendance is down. The public perception of "church" is struggling due to a string of wrongs that people within the church have done, from colonization to clergy abuse scandals to conversion therapy and anti-queer and anti-women stances. (I'm talking about the church in general, not any specific church.) The cost of living is up, which means that our financial donors aren't able to be as generous as they once were, even as the church expenses are going up. The world is also a very different place than it was 50 years ago, which means that the church is also very different.  (Stay with me here - I promise that all of this isn't necessarily a bad thing!)

We can't turn back time and go back to the way that things were.  (And I, for one, don't think that I would want to turn back time. The so-called "golden era" of the United Church of Canada was the 1950s and early 1960s - a time when women and queer folx and people of colour had far fewer rights and opportunities than today.)

Do you remember the story about how Moses led the Ancient Israelites out of Egypt where they had been slaves? The story about how he parted the waters of the Red Sea so that they could cross over to safety on the other side?  The story about how they wandered in the wilderness for 40 years before arriving at the Promised Land?

One interesting detail about this story is that it wasn't very long after they left Egypt that the people started complaining to Moses, "Why have you brought us out here in to the desert to die? We should have stayed in Egypt - yes, we were slaves there, but at least we had cucumbers and melons to eat!"

Even when God sent manna and quail for the people to eat, and made water flow out from a rock for them to drink, the people still found things to complain about.  "Moses," they said, "this food is boring! Nothing but manna and quail to eat, day after day after day. We should have stayed in Egypt - yes, we were slaves there, but at least we had delicious cucumbers and melons to eat!"

Sometimes, in the church, we encounter members of the "Back to Egypt Party." People who long for an imagined past - who forget the bad things that happened there, and only focus on the good things that they remember.  (You also see this tendency exploited by politicians - the politicians and parties who promise to recreate some mythical past that people are nostalgic for - "Make <blank> great again.")

But the thing about time - or at least our human experience of time - is that it only moves in one direction. If we become stuck longing for the past, we won't be able to appreciate the present moment or plan for the future. There is a song that I have loved for literal decades ("My Jemmie" by the Rose Vaughan Trio), and one of the verses begins, "We cannot go back to the way that things were / we cannot go back there again... And you cannot catch moonbeams in the broad light of day / you cannot hold on to what's gone." Those lines always ring in my brain when I encounter members of the Back to Egypt Party!

But just because we can't go back to the way that things were, doesn't mean that things aren't good in the right now, and that things won't be good in the future.  If the Ancient Israelites had stayed in Egypt, they never would have known the freedom of the wilderness under the direct protection of God, and they never would have known the abundance of the Promised Land.

I suspect that some of you saw the post that I made on my Facebook page last week - my "Two Rivers Pastoral Charge Appreciation Post" - but I'll summarize it here for those of you who didn't see it. I was reflecting on Carl Fulton's funeral last week, and how amazing it was to watch the church come together to support the Fulton family. From the people who showed up to set up more tables in the hall, to the people who showed up as Brenan's were bringing Carl to the church to make sure that everything was set up and in place before visitation, to the UCW who made sandwiches and goodies then served at the reception, to members of Session who showed up to greet everyone who came to the Visitation and Funeral, to all of the musicians who contributed to the service, to the little small things that might have gone unnoticed (eg flowers around the sanctuary, tech support to run the slide show, cleaning and tidying afterwards). The Holy Spirit's presence was strong in the church last week as we all worked together.

And I think that this is a beautiful example to answer some of those questions I started with - the "why church?" and "how church?" questions. The church doesn't exist for its own sake - the church exists to serve God's mission - to embody and make known God's love. Whenever we, as the church, are embodying Christ for the world - the Christ who loves and serves - then the church is churching.  (Yes - I like to use church as a verb!)

And I truly believe that the ministry of the church doesn't belong to one person, but belongs to all of us.  Each one of us is called to be part of this beautiful loving body of Christ as we carry out this mission.

I was on a webinar a couple of weeks ago, talking about how church has changed in the past decade, and some of the current trends in how the church is continuing to change, and (because all of us participating in that webinar are ministers) how the ministry of ministers is needing to change. One metaphor that was shared in that webinar was how the minister's role needs to change from "Director" to "Conductor."  And I love that image. A conductor doesn't make any music at all, but rather creates a space so that the musicians of the orchestra can make the music.

The church can't go back to Egypt (or whatever era of the church your heart might be nostalgic for) - the world has moved on, and the church needs to keep moving forward too. But like I said back at the beginning of this reflection, that doesn't have to be a bad thing. What opportunities are there right now for us to share our collective ministry with?  What opportunities will open up for us next year?  What about ten years from now?  If we are always looking backwards, we will miss the opportunities that present themselves right now, and we won't be able to plan for the future. As the General Secretary of the United Church of Canada, Michael Blair, likes to say, God isn't done with us yet!

That was a longer reflection than usual - my apologies, but I could have gone on even longer sharing my reflections from the past month or so! But I'd better move 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 will be the 4th Sunday in Lent, so we will extinguish our 4th Lenten candle as we journey towards Holy Week. Our Lenten theme is "Hungering for God" and this week we will look at "Hungering for Clarity" as we read a story about a man who was born blind (John 9:1-41).

• PIE Day is this Saturday, March 14! As we have done the past couple of years, we will be giving out "Free Pie" in front of Westfield United on Saturday morning. You can take part in a couple of different ways:

  - If you want to donate tarts (mini-pies!) you can drop them off at the church on Thursday or Friday

  - if you want to be part of the free pie giveaway, we will be gathering at the church on Saturday morning at 9am to get the tarts packaged up, and when that is done we will head outside at 10am-ish to start giving them away!

• Asking the Big Questions - our March gathering will be next week, Tuesday March 17, from 4:30-6 in the parlour at Westfield United Church. This month's question, given everything going on in the world right now, will be "Can war ever be justified?" As always, there will be prompts and activities to help us dive into the big question, and we will end with pizza! Which means that this gathering will dovetail nicely into the other activity next Tuesday evening:

• Pray for Peace - our gatherings continue on Tuesday night, rotating between our buildings. Next Tuesday we will be gathering at Westfield at 7pm and praying for Peace Within Canada. (You can see the full schedule by clicking here.)

• Holy Week is coming up soon. This year, our schedule will be:

  Palm Sunday (March 29) - 9:15 at Long Reach; 11:15 at Westfield

  Maundy Thursday (April 2) - 6pm at Westfield

  Good Friday (April 3) - 11am at Long Reach

  Easter Sunrise (April 5) - 7am at Brundage Point, followed by a Potluck Breakfast at Westfield

  Easter Sunday (April 5) - 9:15 at Summerville; 11:15 at Westfield

• Maundy Thursday - as is the tradition here at Two Rivers, our Maundy Thursday service will be woven together with a catered meal, provided again this year by Childs Catering. This means that we will all be able to focus on sharing a meal together and worshipping, rather than some people needing to serve the meal or clean up afterwards. The meal is "Pay What You Can" with a suggested amount of $20. If you aren't able to give that much, that is OK; and if you can give a bit more, that can help offset those who aren't able to. In worship this Sunday and next, I'll be doing a hand-count to get an estimate of how many people to expect so that Debbie knows how much food to make!

• Phone Numbers - Session is working to update the church's phone list. We know that in the past 5-10 years, many people have gotten rid of their landline and are only using their cell phone. If you think that we might have an old number for you, can you please let either me or Elaine know, and we will update the phone list.
  

Thank You Corner - This week's thank you has to go out to everyone who shared in the funeral ministry that the church offered last week to the Fulton family. (So many people were involved, that I know that I am going to miss someone here, so my apologies in advance if I miss you.) Thank you, in approximately chronological order, to:  the Smiths and Brookses for setting up the hall, the UCW for preparing and serving at the reception, Rudy for coordinating casket logistics, Joe for tech support, Session members plus Natalie for your ministry of presence as you greeted guests and took care of the visitation logistics, Kathy for the flowers and the urn, Bertis and Choir members for the music, and everyone who stayed behind afterwards to clean and tidy the space (I don't know who you were, as I had to leave before the end of the reception). I appreciated everything that you offered last week, as did Mary, and I've heard feedback from people not connected with the church about how warmly they felt welcomed.

For a closing thought this week, author and theologian (and cancer survivor) Kate Bowler is sharing a daily reflection through the season of Lent, and if you want to read today's, you can click here. I've shared with some of you the line from her first book, Everything Happens for a Reason (And Other Lies I've Loved) that goes, "I took up swearing for Lent," and in her post today she dives deeper into the season of Lent, and how cursing seems to be a part of it for her. (Content warning: you've probably figured it out by now, but if you prefer to avoid ahem strong language, you may not want to click on the link.)

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)