May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be always with you!
How are you doing, as we move into these dark months of the calendar year? On Monday evening, I drove into town for choir practice, and couldn't believe how dark it was at only 5:45pm. The pavement seemed to swallow up any bit of light that the street lights or my headlights were casting. The nights are long at this time of year, and November tends to be a month of overcast skies.
Every year, I'm taken with how the church calendar aligns with the calendar-calendar. The readings given to us by the Lectionary tend to get more and more urgent as we move through the autumn months and the readings follow Jesus and his disciples as they journey to Jerusalem and move through the last week of Jesus's life. And at the same time, in the world around us, the length of day is getting shorter and shorter (sometimes so quickly that it is noticeable from one day to the next).
December 21 is the winter solstice each year - the turning point of the length of days. Beginning on December 22, the daylight begins to get longer, by just a few seconds a day at first, but then like a train picking up speed, before we know it we are back at the long summer evenings of June.
I love the timing of Christmas falling just a few days after the winter solstice (at least here in the northern hemisphere). The Light of the World is born just as the daylight begins to lengthen.
But this means that we move through the season of Advent - the season of preparation for the birth of Jesus - while the length of day is still getting shorter. We prepare for the birth of the light, even when the external signs don't give any evidence that the light is going to return.
I wonder if there might be some lesson in there for our daily lives. I've heard a lot of people (both in person, and in the traditional and social media) lamenting that the world is getting worse and worse. But because we follow a different story - a story of a God who is a fan of surprise endings; a story where death is always followed by resurrection; a story where God didn't wait for the world to be perfect, but rather was born as a baby to a poor family under the shadow of Empire - because we follow a different story, we can trust that even though the nights seem to be getting longer and longer, we will eventually get to the turning point of the Solstice, and then a few days later the Light of the World will be born, and "the light shines in the darkness and the darkness doesn't extinguish it" (John 1:5).
And to me, this is what hope is. We don't need hope in June, with it's long days and short nights. We need hope in November and December when it seems as though the light will never return. We need hope when the world seems to be getting worse and worse with every passing week. Hope is the voice that pushes back and reminds us that the night won't last forever, reminds us that the Solstice will eventually come, reminds us that God is a God of resurrection and newness and surprise endings.
And may it be so.
In terms of 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 is the last Sunday in the church year before we move into the season of Advent, and is recognized as "Reign of Christ Sunday" or "Christ the King Sunday." Our reading comes from part of the Good Friday Story - John 18:33-37 - and we will see two kings in dialogue with one another. Pilate, representing the Roman Empire, holds all of the worldly power in comparison with Jesus, and we are called to decide which king we will follow.
Our White Gift Sundays begin this week. The origin of this tradition is that people would bring gifts to the church for people in need, but they would all be wrapped in white newsprint so that nobody could see what each person was contributing - all of the gifts were equally received. Over time, the tradition of wrapping them has fallen away for practical reasons (the organizations receiving the gifts want to make sure that they are appropriate to the person receiving it); and we have expanded it out over several weeks. The organizations that we partner with are Coverdale, Avenue B, and Hestia House - they have given us their wish-lists, which were included in the bulletin last week, and you can download by clicking here. Boxes will be available at each of our churches between November 24 and December 15, after which date our Church in the World Committee will deliver our gifts to the three organizations. Thank you for your generosity!
Christmas Letters - these are currently available at the back of each church (Long Reach - yours will be there this Sunday) for you to pick up. Each year, it is helpful if you can deliver as many as you can to your friends and neighbours to help us save on postage, but this year it is extra-important as we won't be able to mail any remaining letters until after the Canada Post strike is resolved. Also - thank you to Linda for catching a couple of typos on the back side of the letter - there is only going to be one UCW Bake Sale, and it will be on Saturday December 7 (not Dec. 2); and the December 29 service will be at 11:15, the usual time (and not 11:25).
Affirming Workshop - Quispamsis United Church (372 Hampton Rd) is hosting a free workshop on intentional diversity for the United Churches in the Saint John area this coming Sunday, November 24, at 1:30pm. You can check out the poster for all of the details by clicking here.
Bulletin Covers - Based on a recommendation from Elaine, Session has decided that it would be a good idea to start using our own "in-house" bulletin covers rather than ordering them from the United Church Publishing House. There will be a slight financial savings by doing this, but more importantly, Elaine won't need to predict how many bulletins to order then wait for them to arrive. (And there were several months this summer when bulletin covers weren't available for ordering - you may have noticed some covers repeating from week-to-week, or some weeks when you might have had a different cover than your neighbour in the pew.) So... this is a call-out to all artists and photographers! We invite you to create and submit your art to be used as a bulletin cover for Two Rivers Pastoral Charge! Remember that bulletins are vertical so photographs should be vertically oriented, and other forms of art should be 5 1/2" x 8 1/2" (ie half of a standard piece of paper). It would be nice to have an assortment of images to cover the full year - this can be pictures of our church buildings (inside or out), scenes in nature, as well as images that fit well with a season (e.g. Advent, Christmas, Lent, Easter, Pentecost, Pride Sunday etc.) You, as the artist, will be credited in the bulletin each time your art is used on the cover! Please send your images to Elaine in the church office - digital pictures/art can be sent by email to wuc@nb.sympatico.ca and physical images can be dropped off at the church office.
And that's it for announcements this week!
For a closing thought, I want to share some of the various Christmas Concerts that are coming up in the next month (many of which include Two Rivers Pastoral Charge musicians). Where possible, I'll link the posters where you can get all of the details! I love Christmas music (and am singing with 3 different choirs at the moment), so this is one of my favourite times of the year. In chronological order, here are the concerts that I know of:
Saint John Chorale (Sat. Nov. 30, 7pm, St. Mark's United Church) - poster
Saint John Men's Chorus and Cantores Celestes Maritimes (Sat. Dec. 7, 7pm, Stella Maris Church) - poster
Treble Clef Choir (Sun. Dec. 8, 2:30pm, Harmony United Church) - poster
Carleton Choristers (Tues. Dec. 10, 7:30pm, Portland United Church) - poster
Westfield United Church Choir (Thurs. Dec. 12, 7pm, Westfield United Church) - poster coming soon!
The Symphony Chorus - Messiah (Tues. Dec. 17, 7pm, Trinity Church SJ) - Facebook Event
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)
Comments