Mid-Week Message - October 14

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

As most of you know, Wednesday morning is bible study morning.  This morning we had a smaller group than usual (some of our "regulars" were away or had other commitments), but we still had a wide-ranging conversation.  We always start with the words on the page - we read a short passage, sometimes from a couple of different translations, then start sharing with one another how the words are speaking to us.  I do have a couple of prompt questions I can ask if needed, but on other days like today, no prompting is needed!

What I love most about these Wednesday mornings is that when I come into the room, I have no idea where our conversations are going to go.  I know where we are going to start, which is the reading from the bible picking up from where we left off last week (this fall we have started reading through Romans), but I have no idea where we are going to end up!

One of the threads that we picked up this morning was the thread of being aware of our relationship with God. In Romans, Paul writes about the importance of following the Law (ie the first 5 books of the bible, the Torah) for Jewish people - always remembering that Paul himself was Jewish (as was Jesus), so this was an important practice for him.  Someone commented that it must be hard to remember all of the things, and frustrating to always have to do things a particular way - keeping separate kitchens for meat meals and milk meals, knowing what foods you can and can't eat, knowing what type of clothes and hairstyles were OK to wear.

I had a different take on it. If everything that you did every single day was done in the way that God instructed you to do it, then you would never have a chance to forget your relationship with God.  It would be an ongoing reminder of God's loving presence in your life. When you get dressed in the morning, you are reminded that God loves you. When you make your breakfast, you are reminded that God loves you.  When you go out the door, you are reminded that God loves you.

And that has me also thinking about how easy it is to forget this (at least for me) as I go about my everyday life.  Yes, there are things that draw me back - when I read my bible, or pray for someone, or look out at the beautiful fall colours over the river.  But in the in-between times, an awareness of God's presence and God's love slips from the forefront of my consciousness.

And this has me longing for this awareness, and wondering what it would take for me to develop this ongoing, moment-to-moment awareness of God's presence and God's love.

When I was a physiotherapist, I usually prescribed exercise programs to my clients, and to promote compliance with the exercises, I had two strategies that I would use. First of all, I would help my client to understand why these exercises were important and how they would help (but only if they did them); and secondly I would usually try to help my clients find a way to work them into their daily routine. One client did her exercises while standing at the counter waiting for her kettle to boil, and since she made herself tea with every meal, she started doing her exercises three times a day.  Another client put her exercise bike int he room next to her kitchen, so after she did the dishes in the evening, she got on her exercise bike for 20 minutes.

I'm wondering if similar strategies might help me cultivate that ongoing sense of God's presence throughout the day, might help me travel through my days with a continual sense of God's love surrounding me.  I am clear about my why - knowing God's love is with me helps me through good times and challenging times. It is the how that is harder.

A spiritual director once suggested a "threshold practice" to me - every time I step through a doorway, passing from one room to another or from the outside to the inside, I touch the doorframe to remind me that God is still with me as I step from one to the other. This morning's conversation has me wondering if now might be a time to try this again.

I'd genuinely like to hear from you.  How do you cultivate a sense of God's presence and God's love?  Do you have any practices that help you?  Is there anything that you would like to try?

Moving on to announcements for this week:

• Worship on Sunday will be at 9:15 at Summerville and 11:15 at Westfield and Facebook Live. Summerville is going to be a baptism service (yay!), and at both services we are going to be reading Jesus's challenging teaching with a coin:  "Give to the emperor what is the emperor's and give to God what is God's." (Matthew 22:15-22)

• Thanksgiving / Giving Thanks - You may have already seen this in the bulletin on Sunday or on our Facebook page, but on Sunday morning I encouraged everyone to take this week after Thanksgiving as an opportunity to transform our gratitude into generosity, because gratitude is more than just a feeling. Once you have completed the activity, you can place your donation in an envelope with your name on it (so that it is credited towards your tax receipt) and "Benevolent Fund" in the offering plate at any of our churches; or if it is easier, you can e-transfer it to westfielduc@gmail.com (again, make sure that the message line has your name as well as "Benevolent Fund" to make sure that it ends up in the right place). If you have missed it, you can see the full activity by clicking here.

• Remembrance Day Turkey Dinner - tickets are now available at the Grand Bay Home Hardware! This year the dinner is going to be take-out only, with pick-up times of 4:30, 4:00, and 5:30 available. Tickets are $20 and must be purchased in advance (and they usually sell-out early, so don't delay in picking up your tickets!). You can view the poster by clicking here, and if you are a Facebook person, feel free to share our Facebook post which you'll find by clicking here.

• Sandwiches for Romero House - a reminder that Friday is the day!

  Westfield:  Egg Salad (no onion)

  Long Reach:  Ham and Cheese

  Summerville:  Bologna

  Just butter the bread; no condiments. Each sandwich should be placed in a baggie, then the baggies can be stacked in the bread bag. Pick-up will be at 9:30 am on October 16 from each of the churches, and the sandwiches will be delivered into town.

• Asking the Big Questions - back from our summer hiatus, we'll be asking our next "big question" on Tuesday October 20:  "What is our purpose?"  This was suggested by Josie, who wrote:  "everything else on earth has a purpose (nature, animals, insects) and works as it was intended... what is our purpose?" Which leads into a matching question - do we (as humans) always manage to fulfill our purpose? We'll gather from 4:30-6pm in the parlour at Westfield; and as always, we'll finish with pizza!

• Upcoming Dates:

  Sun. Oct. 18, 2pm - Covenanting Service at Portland United Church (If anyone would like to attend, I'll be driving in to town after worship at Westfield - you are welcome to pack a lunch and hop in my car with me!)

  Wed. Oct. 21, 7pm - Session meeting at Summerville

  Sun. Oct. 25 - Cinnamon Roll Social at Westfield after worship (thank you Joanne!)

Thank You Corner - this week, I want to say "thank you" to our decorating elves who made all three of our church sanctuaries ready for Thanksgiving / fall. I'm not going to name you out loud (after all, elves work in secret), but you know who you are! Thank you for sharing your artistic sensibilities with all of us, and making the beauty of the spaces we worship in reflect (even imperfectly) the beauty of God.

For a closing thought this week, I want to share with you a YouTube video I watched yesterday by a young organist living in England. If you like music (particularly church music), if you have ever sung in a choir, or if you are curious about pipe organs, you might find this video interesting. (And you might gain a greater appreciation for the church organists you see at work!) You can watch it 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)