Mid-Week Message - October 28

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

Some of you know that I feel a strong affinity to the rhythm of the year, to the "wheel of the year" - the idea that the months and seasons unfold in a recurring pattern where one season is followed by the next, is followed by the next.  In many traditions, particularly in the northern hemisphere, this time of the year - late October/early November on the calendar that we follow - is a time when death and the dead feel a little bit closer than they do at other times of year.

In the Mexican tradition, there is the day of the dead.  For Celtic spirituality there is Samhain. And in the Christian tradition, we have a trio of feast days - All Hallow's Eve, All Saints Day, and All Souls Day.

When you think about our northern hemisphere seasons, it kind of makes sense.  We sense death around us, as frost kills our plants and the falling leaves make our trees appear dead. Days are shortening and nights are getting longer as we enter the darkest part of the year.  The beginning of November marks the half-way point between the fall equinox (equal length of night and day) and the winter solstice (the longest night).

And yet all of this doesn't have to make us feel sad.  The word that comes to mind (at least for me) is melancholy - that peculiar mixture of sadness for what has gone, celebrating what was, longing for the light, and looking forward to what is going to come next (even though we aren't there yet).

Having a feast day right in the middle of this time - All Saints Day - is a chance to celebrate the saints that came before us. In the Protestant tradition, we consider everyone who has died to be a saint, alongside the well-known saints like St. Francis or St. Patrick or St. Brigid. Saints become saints not for anything that they did or didn't do, but because of their relationship with God through Jesus. (We ended up talking about this at bible study this morning!)

And so maybe you want to do something on Sunday to celebrate the saints in your life. I'm thinking that on Sunday evening, I might light a candle for my mother, a candle for my grandmother, a candle for my friend Julie who died recently, and a candle for our own Ida. I might also light a candle for some of the "named" saints that I feel a connection to - St. Joseph, St. Mary Magdalene, and St. Hildegard of Bingen come to mind.

We can feel a bit sad - especially for the saints that we knew when they were alive - but we are sad because we can't see them any more; but we can also celebrate all that they gave to the world, and celebrate that they are now living fully in God's presence.

(Many of our Hallowe'en traditions are connected with All Saints Day when we remember the dead, as well as with Samhain, the Celtic feast day where the veil between the living and the dead was thought to be thinner than usual.)

Moving on to announcements for this week:

• Worship on Sunday - even though it is All Saints Day, that isn't going to be the focus of our worship. (Here at Two Rivers, our annual Flower Services offer the same function as All Saints Day services do in churches that mark the day - an opportunity to remember the people who came before us.) Instead, we are going to continue with readings from the last week of Jesus's life - Matthew 23:1-12 this time, paired with 1 Thessalonians 2:9-12. Worship will be at 9:15 at Summerville and 11:15 at Westfield and Facebook Live.
  

• Bible Study - is going to be paused for the next two weeks. I'm going to be on Study Leave next week, and the following Wednesday is Remembrance Day, so our next gathering will be on Wednesday October 18.
  

• Remembrance Day Turkey Dinner - a reminder that tickets are now available at the Grand Bay Home Hardware. $20 each, with pick-up times of 4:30, 5:00, and 5:30.
  

• Thanksgiving / Giving Thanks - a reminder that if you were taking part in this years gratitude practice in support of the Benevolent Fund (click here for a reminder of what this was), please bring your envelopes back to the church by this Sunday. Be sure to have your name on the envelope (so that it will be credited towards your annual donation receipt), and mark the envelope "Benevolent Fund." Our treasurers can then transfer the money into the Benevolent Fund, since most years the number of requests tends to go up as Christmas approaches. (Also - you can donate to the Benevolent Fund at any time of the year - just be sure to mark your donation as such when you put it in the offering plate or e-transfer it.)
  

• Long Reach folks - I'm not going to be able to make it over for my office hours tomorrow, as I have a funeral at Westfield tomorrow morning. My apologies!
  

• Study Leave - as I mentioned earlier, I'm going to be on Study Leave next week. I will be going on retreat for a couple of days, and plan to spend the rest of the week working on the course that I am taking this semester. (My final essay is due December 16, but I know that the closer we get to December, the busier my life becomes so I want to get a head start!) This means that there will be no Mid-Week Message next week; and if any pastoral emergencies come up and you need to reach a minister, you can call Margaret Stackhouse at (xxx) xxx-xxxx and she will connect you with one of my colleagues.

Thank You Corner - I have a number of "thank yous" that I want to pass along this week: Thank you to Joanne Luck for making such delicious cinnamon rolls to share last Sunday at Westfield! Thank you to Shirley Cochran for organizing the concert at Long Reach on Saturday with The Four of Us Plus One! And thank you to all of you who took time to say "thank you" this weekend in recognition of Clergy Appreciation Month - your thoughtfulness and kind words warmed my heart.

For a closing thought this week, because it's almost Hallowe'en... I generally don't do scary (movies, books, TV shows etc), and I have a very low threshold for what I consider scary, but here is a link to my favourite Hallowe'en-ish song:  "Spirits in the Graveyard" by Gathering Sparks. This song always makes me think of our Long Reach and Summerville cemeteries.

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)