Mid-Week Message - November 19

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

I think that a lot of my neighbours took advantage of the nice weather on Saturday to put up their Christmas lights - when I was driving home on Saturday night, there were many more displays of light driving up the old highway than there had been the night before!

The seasons are turning, both according to the weather and according to the calendar, and these colourful lights are a reminder.  In the church too, we are on the threshold of not only a new season, but a new year on the calendar.

The church year begins in Advent - a time of anticipation and preparation for the coming of Jesus. (This year, the first Sunday of Advent will be November 30.)  The season of Advent is followed by the season of Christmas (the 12 days of Christmas stretch from December 25 - January 5) when we celebrate the birth of God in human flesh.  Advent is followed by Epiphany, a season where we celebrate the ways that God-in-Jesus is made known in the world.  Epiphany is followed by another season of preparation - this time, the season is Lent which is traditionally a time for self-reflection and prayer, a time for fasting, and a time for giving.  Lent is followed by Holy Week when we travel through Jesus's last week, and his crucifixion, which is followed by his resurrection on Easter.  But Easter is not just a day, but a season in the church, lasting for 50 days when we celebrate new life and new beginnings.  Easter is followed by the day of Pentecost, and the coming of the Holy Spirit in power.  Then we come to a long stretch of Ordinary Time, which isn't "boring" time but rather a season when we can celebrate how God shows up and works in our every-day lives.  Then the last Sunday of the church year is the Reign of Christ (sometimes also called Christ the King) when we look forward to a time when the peace of Christ, the love of Christ, the joy of Christ will reign over every corner of creation.  And then this holy-day of looking forwards leads into the new church year and the season of anticipation that is Advent!

This Sunday then, is the last Sunday of the old church year, and a time when we anticipate what is coming.  We've been talking a lot about hope in the past couple of Sundays (there are lots of good themes that carry from week-to-week in the lectionary readings at this time of year!), and hope is more than just wishful thinking - hope is trusting with every fibre of our being that ultimately God is in control of the end of the story, and that the ending is going to be good beyond our imagination.  And that is what this celebration of the Reign of Christ promises us.  As one of my favourite hymn lines goes, "though the wrong seems oft so strong, God is the ruler yet."

This is hard - when I look around the world, it is so easy to name so many places where the world is not unfolding according to God's love and mercy and abundance and peace.  But if everything was according to God's plan, then we wouldn't need hope.  One of my favourite paradoxes says that hope is only possible when everything is hopeless.

And yet hope is a gift from God.  (One of the gifts that we will be celebrating in the season of Advent!)  God gives us this gift of unreasonable hope, in the literal sense of "unreasonable" in that it doesn't make sense.  I borrow that phrase from one of my mentors - I was in a meeting with her recently, and we were having difficult conversations, and she said, "Well, when it comes down to it, Christians are people of unreasonable hope.  That is one of the things that defines us."

And that is my wish and my prayer for all of you who are reading this letter, as we stand here at the end of this church year, on the threshold of another year.  May God gift you with this unreasonable hope.  May you be able to trust in God's unfolding plan, even when you aren't able to see any signs in the world as it is that the unfolding of God's plan is already underway.  And may you be able to live as though God's kingdom was already here, living with joy and abundance and love.

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, as we celebrate the Reign of Christ, we'll be exploring the question of what sort of king we want to follow.  The scripture reading is, perhaps, unexpected - Luke 23:33-43.  (Back at the end of August, I told you that I had read a book called Jesus and John Wayne - this book has strongly influenced my thinking about how we understand Jesus and kings; and it is likely to make an appearance in the sermon.)

• Bible Study - after taking a break this week as I was at the Snow Centre this morning, we'll resume next Wednesday at 10am in the parlour at Westfield United Church.  In our journey through the Old Testament, we've reached the part of the story where the people are carried away from the land into exile in Babylon, and we're reading some of the more familiar parts of the prophets (e.g. Isaiah and Jeremiah, including some readings often read in Advent) and seeing how they fit into the bigger picture.  Everyone is welcome!

• Advent Candles - Cindy Patstone (Westfield) and I both have boxes of Advent Candles that are being sold as a fundraiser for the church. They are $15 each, or 2 for $25, and you can see either one of us if you would like to buy one.  To see the poster (which includes a picture of the candles, and Cindy's contact information), you can click here.

• Advent Socials (Westfield) - as they have done in previous years, Session is organizing socials following worship through the season of Advent at Westfield United.  Session Members will make sure that there is coffee and tea each week, and we invite members of the congregation to bring "eats and sweets" to share with everyone.  This year's schedule will be:

  Nov. 30 - anyone with a last name between A - L

  Dec. 7 - anyone with a last name between M - P

  Dec. 14 - anyone with a last name between Q - Z

  Dec. 21 - members of session, anyone who missed their week, or anyone who wants to bring goodies a second time!

• Christmas Letters - Elaine now has all of the envelopes stuffed and labeled for Westfield and Long Reach, and they will be at the back of the church this Sunday (with her apologies that they weren't quite done on time for last Sunday at Westfield).  Please help us to save on postage by picking up any letters you can hand-deliver to friends, family members, and neighbours!

• Mailing Address / Phone Number - When you receive your Christmas letter, can you please double-check your mailing address.  If we don't have the correct mailing address for you (or if you have a new phone number), can you please let Elaine know in the office?  You can give her a call at 506-757-2201, you can email her at wuc@nb.sympatico.ca or you can write the changes on the envelope and drop it into the offering plate.

• Ida's Cupboard - with the weather starting to turn colder, especially at night, it is probably best to start focusing on food donations that don't risk freezing.  Items that work well in the winter include:  dry pasta, KD, cereal (either boxed cereal or instant oatmeal), peanut butter (the oil keeps it from freezing and expanding), any dry boxed food mixes (e.g. stovetop stuffing, rice-a-roni, hamburger helper etc), dry soup mixes (e.g. ramen or Lipton), granola bars, minute rice, Bisquick / pancake mix, milk powder, nuts...

• Bulletin Covers - Elaine says thank you to people who have started sending her Advent-y covers, but also a reminder that we have a bunch of services coming up in December, and anything Advent, Christmas, or generic winter-y (that could be used into January and beyond) would be very much appreciated. You can email them to her in the church office at wuc@nb.sympatico.ca.
  

Thank You Corner - This week's thank-you goes out to the Long Reach Singers, who tagged along with Joan and I this morning when we went to the Snow Centre to lead worship.  We have some amazing singers in all three of our churches, and this group of singers said "yes" when Joan said "please."  The residents love having live music as part of their worship service, and look forward to when it is our turn to visit.

For a closing thought this week, here is a fun video that I watched on the weekend. This is from one of the YouTube channels that I follow, from a classical-style composer with a sense of humour.  This time around, he tackles the happy birthday tune - you can listen by clicking here.  (My very favourite of his riffs off of Brahms' Lullaby - you can listen to that one by clicking 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)