Mid-Week Message - May 14

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

Last week, I had the opportunity to attend a series of talks given by Diana Butler Bass who was the guest speaker at a Homecoming event at the Atlantic School of Theology. Her background is as a historian but also in the realm of public theology - she takes theoretical theology and applies it to very real things happening in the world, then gets her message out there, through her books, articles, newsletter, and in-person events where she speaks.

(As a side tangent - it was a memorable experience to be sitting the the AST chapel surrounded by colleagues listening to Diana Butler Bass speak when the new pope was announced. She encouraged us all to get our phones out as soon as the white smoke was spotted as we collectively figured out who had been chosen. Once we had a name and a couple of details, she then spent some time pondering the historic and cultural significance of the choice - it was almost like watching a good jazz musician riffing on a snippet of a tune.)

I'm saving my favourite quote from her talk for next week when we gather for our monthly Asking the Big Questions, but the overall theme of her presentation was gratitude (which is also the title of one of her books:  Gratitude). She spoke about how gratitude keeps us anchored in the present - it is a corrective to both nostalgia (which pulls us into the past) and anxiety (which projects us into the future).

She also spent some time teasing apart "economic" gratitude which is transactional (the example she gave for this was being forced by her mother to sit down and write thank-you cards after Christmas when she was a child - grandma gave me a hat, therefore I owe grandma a thank-you note) and "relational" gratitude which is gratitude simply because we feel grateful.

You can even apply this to our relationship with God - a transactional or economic gratitude might be, "God gives us air to breathe and a sunny day today, therefore we owe God a thank you in our prayers"; whereas a relational gratitude might be in the form of delighting in and feeling grateful for God's presence, and resting in God's presence.

And while it might seem like the first form of gratitude is the one that leads to actions (after all, some form of reciprocity is required in an economic gratitude structure) that can lead to real change, since it is based in relationships. Just imagine what a group of people might achieve if they are drawn together out of gratitude? Churches are one example of this; as are many service groups - there is a group in Saint John called "100 Women Who Care" who gather together to give away money, not out of a sense of obligation or to pay back something that is owed, but because they are grateful that they are able to do this. (Diana Butler Bass named this relational, communal gratitude "The Politics of Gratitude.")

And I will end by saying that I'm grateful for all of you - for your caring, for your generosity, for your dedication, and just because you are YOU! (And because you, as a church, give me the opportunity to attend events like the one last week.)

Moving on to announcements this week:

• Worship on Sunday will be at Summerville at 9:15 and Westfield and FB Live at 11:15. The lectionary of readings takes us back in time a little bit this week, and we're going to be reading part of the Maundy Thursday story where Jesus is saying goodbye to his beloved friends (specifically, we'll be reading John 13:31-35 and the "new" commandment to love. (Fun Fact: the name of Maundy Thursday comes from these verses. "Commandment" in Latin is "Mandatum," and over time "Mandatum" became "Maundy.")

• Asking the Big Questions - our May Gathering will be next week, Tuesday May 20, from 4:30-6 (and as always, we will end with pizza). This month's big question will be:  "What do we do about the E-Word*?" (*Evangelism). Ken and I will have prompts and activities as we explore this (potentially scary) topic from different perspectives. We always have great conversations at this gathering!

• Session and Official Board - a reminder that we are meeting next Wednesday at Summerville - 6:30 for Session and 7:30 for Official Board.

• Sunday School Fishing Excursion - The Long Reach Sunday School will be heading down to White's Bluff Wharf for a fishing excursion on Sunday May 25 during worship (9:15) - they will start in the church, and after the Story for All Ages, head down to the water. Weather permitting, there will be breakfast on the wharf afterwards. Anyone from any of our churches is welcome to participate! You can bring your own fishing gear if you have it, or the leaders will have some you can borrow if you don't have your own.

• 100th Anniversary Worship Service - we've been talking about this for a while, but the date is coming closer!

  Sunday June 15, 10:30am

  Saint John High School Auditorium

  Guest Preacher: Rev. Faith Marsh-MacCuish (Executive Minister for Fundy St. Lawrence Dawning Waters Region)

  Music: mass choir made up of local United Church Choirs, under the direction of Janet Kidd

  Parking:  Please carpool! Driver can drop people off at the door then find parking on the streets around or Puglsey Wharf. Parking with a shuttle bus will be available for those who need it - park at TD Station (look for 100th Anniversary signs), and a city bus will make a run to the school at 9:45, 10:00, and 10:15.

  (You can also watch a silly promotional video by clicking here - I say silly because of the acting; but a huge thanks to Joe Brooks for the filming and editing!)
  

Thank You Corner (extra-appropriate this week, since we begin with gratitude):  I'm a week late with this one, but there was no Mid-Week Message last week. Thank you to everyone who came out two Saturdays ago, despite the weather, to help with the garden clean-up at Westfield United Church! Many hands make light work, and the Harvest Garden, Prayer Garden, and lawns were all tidied up that morning. (And an extra "thank you" to our Harvest Garden coordinators who have been hard at work getting things ready for this year!)

In my closing thought each week, I usually share something I've been reading or watching or listening to. It is no secret that I am a geek, and one of my geeky interests is language. This is a video that came across my YouTube page a couple of weeks ago from British linguist Geoff Lindsey. He usually makes videos about accents and pronunciation, and this one is about why we pronounce the word "covert" the way that we do, involving a bit of a historical deep-dive. It's just over 20 minutes long, so if you are looking for something to watch and this sounds interesting to you, 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)

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)