May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be always with you!
You may have already noticed this about me, but I like playing with words. Which is probably a good thing, given how much writing I do in the course of a week at the church; between writing prayers for Sunday worship, writing a sermon, writing Facebook posts, writing e-mails (oh so many e-mails!), and writing this Mid-Week Message, a lot of words flow out of my fingertips every week.
But my love of words goes beyond the quantity I produce. Word play and puns are my favourite forms of humour. Word origins fascinate me (you just have to look at my podcast playlist to know that). Yesterday morning on CBC’s The Current, I heard a teacher talking about teaching reading and literacy, and she used the phrase “word scientist” when talking about exploring and learning about new words with her students – I love the image of closely examining a word to see what we can learn from and about it.
When I was at AST, one of the classes that I took was on the Holy Spirit - a whole semester on who the Holy Spirit is, and what the work of the Holy Spirit is. One week, the focus of our reading and seminar discussion was around words and language.
The words that we use are symbols that point towards the thing that they represent. Our word "dog" (spoken or written) symbolizes the animal with four legs and a tail that wags when you walk into the house. Other languages have different symbols (words) that point towards the same animal - "chien," "ci," "perro," "mbwa" are all symbols that point towards the same thing.
When it comes to concrete things, the word-symbols that we use have a relatively specific meaning - "dog" means the animal. (Though even with words like "dog" we can start to use them metaphorically or poetically. If someone called you a dog, what would they be trying to say about you? Without context or elaboration, I can think of a couple of different meanings.) Other word-symbols are much less clear or specific. For example, if I say "God" I may mean one thing but you may understand that word to mean something very different.
Circling back to the Holy Spirit, one of the roles of the Holy Spirit is bringing meaning to the words that we speak so that we can understand one another. Have you ever noticed the prayer that I pray at the start of each sermon?
Holy God,
move your Holy Spirit in this space,
so that between the words that are spoken
and the words that are heard,
your Word might be proclaimed.
Amen.
What I intend to say with my words may be very different than what you hear from my words. And the role of the Holy Spirit is that God's Word (ie Jesus Christ) might be proclaimed somewhere between the speaking and the hearing.
All of this is interesting (at least to me, but then I've outed myself as a word nerd), but what about the practical application? I think that it is very wise to be aware that the intended meaning of what is said (or written) may not be the same as the received meaning of what is said (or written). As we go through out lives (and especially with a couple of elections coming up this fall), if someone says something that pushes your buttons (there I go with metaphorical use of language again!), rather than reacting right away, maybe it is good to pause and clarify, "When you said "xyz," I think that you mean a, b, and c. Is that what you are trying to say?"
If everyone could pause and clarify (and be open to the possibility that they have mis-understood each other), our discourse, private and public, would be a lot more civil. And we can pray at all times for the Holy Spirit to help us to hear the message between the speaking and the hearing.
Enough on that for today - here are some announcements for this week!
Church Picnic - our Two Rivers Pastoral Charge Church Picnic is happening this Sunday, September 8, at the Sherwood's cottage at 11am. (There won't be services in any of our buildings this week, and no livestream either.) We'll have a worship service on the beach (including both a baptism and communion) then will share a potluck lunch. You will want to bring: outdoor chair, water bottle (or other beverage of choice), a dish to share, your plate/cutlery, and a sweater or blanket if there is a chilly wind (you never know in September!). The address is 100 Admiral Lane, Long Reach. From Westfield, you will want to leave the church/Brundage Point by 10:30 to give yourself time to get there, park, and get set up at the beach. Cross the Westfield ferry, and stay on the same road. Admiral Lane is on the left shortly after Yip's, and if you come to the Neck Road you've gone to far.
Picnic Rain Plan - hopefully it won't come to it (and Sunday's forecast is looking slightly better as the week goes on), but if we need to change the picnic location because of the weather, we'll send out an e-mail and post on the church's Facebook Page no later than 9:30 on Sunday morning. If you don't hear from us, then we'll see you on the beach!
Sunday School - the picnic marks the usual kick-off for Sunday School. We'll have games and activities set up for the kids at the picnic; and then our regular Sunday School will begin the following week (Sept. 15).
Bible Study - we had our first post-summer gathering this morning, with fabulous conversation as always! Everyone is welcome to join us on Wednesdays in the parlour at Westfield United Church from 10-11:30am.
Confirmation Class - I've had some interest expressed in a confirmation class this fall; and I'm hoping to offer it in the same way that we did two years ago - open to people of all ages who are interested in exploring their faith. If you have never been confirmed before, you are welcome; or if you were confirmed at a younger age and you want to explore your faith from your current perspective, you are welcome! If you are interested, please get in touch with me. I'm working on figuring out the timing for these gatherings, and once I know who is interested, I'll have more details.
Asking the Big Questions - this is a monthly gathering, in a similar format to Confirmation (but without a pre-set list of topics to cover in a specific time period). It is a gathering that will have different activities and prompts to create space to explore some of the big questions in life. It is a gathering that is suitable and open to people of all ages who are old enough to ask and want to discuss the big questions. Our first gathering will be on Tuesday September 17 from 4:30-6pm at Westfield United Church (with thanks to the UCW who will be providing pizza for the gathering). The tentative question for our first gathering will be "Who is God?"
Scam Alert - This is a scam that comes up periodically, and since someone alerted me to it today, I thought that this was a good time to send out a reminder. The way the scam works is that the scammer "borrows" my name and attaches it to an e-mail address or phone number that isn't mine. The scammer then sends you a text or an e-mail that may look like it comes from me because it has my name attached to it, but if you look at the actual phone number or e-mail address it isn't mine. The message usually reads something along the lines of: "Hi, it's Rev. Kate Jones. I can't take a call right now, but can you please text me / e-mail me at your earliest convenience. I need your help with something urgent." If you were to text or e-mail the scammer, they would then be asking for gift cards or bitcoin, usually with a story about someone undergoing cancer treatment or in hospital. Please know that I would never contact you from an e-mail address or phone number other than the one that you have for me; and that I wouldn't ask you personally to do things that fall under the Benevolent Fund of the church. And if you are ever uncertain if something is legitimate, please do call me on my usual cell phone number no matter what the message says.
And I think that's it for announcements today!
For a closing thought, just a quick one this week. A post from Kate Bowler, "A Recipe for Absurd Happiness," made me smile this week, and I hope that it gives you a smile too. You can view it by clicking here.
"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."
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be always with you! This winter - despite some of the weather in the past week or so, it's not spring yet
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Spirit be always with you! One of my brothers-in-law is from Iran, so the current war in the Middle East has been
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