May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be always with you!
I usually begin these mid-week messages with a reflection on something that is going on in the world. This week, despite all of the national and international news happening, what is at the forefront of my mind is that on Monday afternoon, I learned that a colleague who worked in the Regional office died suddenly of a heart attack.
As you can imagine, this has sent shock waves through the Region. This person carried a lot of wisdom, a lot of compassion (he deeply loved the church), and also a lot of institutional knowledge. (If you wanted to know anything that had happened in the United Church in the Maritimes any time in the past, he was your go-to person!)
And even as we are processing our shock and our grief, we know that what we are feeling pales in comparison to what his family must be feeling in this moment. (Please hold the family of Kendall Harrison in your prayers.)
But one thing that I learned about him yesterday morning, when the Regional Executive gathered on Zoom to share our stories and memories with one another, is that Kendall had an app on his phone that would send him a message every day, reminding him of his mortality. Every day, his phone would send him a message, reminding him that he was going to die, and therefore he should live fully in the present, and appreciate each day he was given.
When I heard this, I couldn't help but think that this would almost be like living Ash Wednesday every day.
One week ago today, a group of us gathered at Westfield United Church and each of us received a mark of ashes on our foreheads, accompanied by the words, "From dust you have come, and to dust you will return." I'm always amazed at how many people attend the Ash Wednesday service, because I think that it is maybe the most counter-cultural thing that the church does. Our culture tends to be both death-defying ("if only you eat the perfect foods and exercise the perfect amount and take the right medicine, you should live forever") and death-denying (we don't like to talk about death; we don't like to talk about grief; I remember being shocked that when my mother died, I was expected to be back at work 3 days later as if nothing had happened).
And yet on Ash Wednesday, people line up down the aisle of the church to be reminded that they are mortal. To be reminded that they are going to die.
And that is why I think that the phone app, reminding the user each day of their mortality, is like living in Ash Wednesday every day. But if we know that our days are numbered (even though we don't know the number), if we are aware that we don't have an infinite amount of time to walk this earth, then I think that maybe we appreciate the days that we do have. Maybe we love a little bit harder. Maybe we are a bit more ready to forgive. Maybe we turn off the screens and go outside for a walk. Maybe we call or visit that friend we haven't seen in a while.
It's almost like knowing that we are human (ie mortal) makes us better at human-ing.
And so as you go about your life this week, I invite you to consider what you would do differently if you thought that this might be your last day on earth. What do you need to do today, so that if you were to die tonight, you would go with no regrets?
(And the other half of our Ash Wednesday service is a reminder that death is never the end of the story. As Paul wrote in his letter to the Romans, "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? Therefore we have been buried with him... For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his." (Rom. 6:3-5) When we shared the bread and cup of communion last Wednesday, we were reminded that death is never the end of the story.)
Moving on to announcements this week:
PIE Day is coming up this Friday (March 14, or 3.14). Any and all donations of tarts (ie mini-pies) will be gratefully received at Westfield United (133 Nerepis Rd) on Thursday or Friday - please leave them in the kitchen in the basement (and if they are in a container that you want back, make sure that your name is on it somewhere). I plan to be at the church on Thursday afternoon - if you don't have a church key, you are welcome to drop them off then. And then if you would like to give away free pie on Friday afternoon in front of the church, please come to the church at 3pm - we'll be packaging them up in individual paper bags, then heading outside to start giving them away.
The Chosen - on our Wednesday evenings during the season of Lent, we will be watching The Chosen - a tv series about the life of Jesus. We begin this evening at 7pm in the parlour at Westfield United Church! (If you want to watch the trailer, you can click here.)
Worship on Sunday - 9:15 at Long Reach and 11:15 at Westfield and on Facebook Live. This week, our Call will be to Deep Spirituality, and the reading will be the story of Jesus's Transfiguration - Luke 9:28-36. alongside a passage from Philippians - Philippians 3:17-4:1. (For those of you who are lectionary nerds like me - yes, this does feel out of order! Usually we read the story of the transfiguration on the last Sunday before Lent. That was the week that the UCW were doing the service, so we didn't get to read the story then, but it is given as an alternative gospel reading for the 2nd Sunday in Lent.)
Asking the Big Question - I think that most of you must have caught my mistake in last week's Mid-Week Message (and thank you to Elaine for correcting it in the bulletin) - this month's gathering will be next Tuesday, March 18 (not the 11th - nobody showed up at the church yesterday, so I know that you are all smarter than me!). Our big question this month will be: "What do we do in the face of evil?" We'll gather at 4:30, and as always, we'll end with pizza!
Session - a reminder to Session members that our March meeting will be next Tuesday, March 18, at 7pm at Summerville. (Those of us at the Big Question that same day will carpool across the river from Westfield!)
Thank You Corner - this week's thank you goes out to Joe Brooks and Claude Smith. Last week they were doing some work at Westfield Church, and one of the projects that they tackled was hard-wiring the WiFi extender in the sanctuary to the modem in Elaine's office. Background to this: the wall in the sanctuary was originally an exterior wall - ie a thick concrete wall - and in order to have WiFi in the sanctuary, there is a little WiFi booster box by the organ. The signal has been quite unstable in the sanctuary even with this booster box, but by running a cable from the office to the sanctuary, they have achieved a strong and stable WiFi signal in the sanctuary. It was a noisy couple of days around the church last week, but thanks to Joe and Claude's work, we should have a much better (and less glitch-y) livestream on Sunday mornings for those of you who join us virtually!
And for a closing thought this week: One of my favourite non-traditional Lent songs is "Show Me the Place" by Leonard Cohen, and I think that it fits well with our Lenten theme this year, following the Calls of the United Church of Canada (Deep Spirituality, Bold Discipleship, Daring Justice), and lighting our Lenten candles to illuminate the way for us. If you want to listen to it, 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)
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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