This Sunday

Here are some parting thoughts on the way I see things in the church - which is, very hopeful. So, often we forget that there is something that runs deeper than the construct which is Christianity, something eternal, powerful, the base from which Christianity springs, the base from which all religions, all true art, literature, all creativity, all life springs - and this is the divine source, the ground of being, we have called God, though others have named it differently.

This fourth week in the Advent season, we are gathered around the symbolic candle of love. We began with hope, peace, joy, and now we arrive, on the Sunday before Christmas, at love.

The Christmas story, I have always felt, it a great love story – this is one of the reasons it captivates everyone, within the church and beyond. It has all the ear marks of a great romance, the initial upset in a prospective marriage, a dangerous journey, opposition, rejection, uncertainty, twists and turns in its plot, angelic visitations, and the eventual triumph of the couple at its centre.

Advent is one of the earliest observances in our faith, dating back to the sixth century when fasting was a major part of the season’s preparation. Over time, our customs and rituals change, and our current custom is to have an Advent wreath with four candles, representing hope, peace, joy, and love. This week we gather around the candle of joy, and that may seem somewhat bittersweet.

This week and next, in our scripture readings and our reflections, we have young Mary, prophetess and priestess both,

The Advent season inaugurates the new liturgical year in the Christian calendar. And with each year, a particular gospel story is featured. This year, we will be reading through the Gospel of Mark. And Mark has an exciting story to tell. The first story to be written about Jesus, Mark is anxious we all know that Jesus is the Prince of Peace.

Mark offers as Jesus’ birth story, the tale of his baptism - a singular moment in time where Jesus came to understand he was beloved by God. Jesus’ ministry was to teach others that they were beloved by God as well. And that,

Now you know, we are coming into the season of singing. Even those who do not come to churches on any kind of regular basis find themselves drawn back to the light and songs of the season. It is the Advent Hymns, the Christmas Carols, the music that bursts with joyfulness and hope that speak to our internal longing for a more equitable world, for a more peaceful spirit, to be in love, with ourselves, with those closest to us, with the world and the endless possibilities it offers.

Yes, it will be a different Christmas this year.

In the particularly uncertain times in which we live, we don’t welcome the idea of more change. We want things that we can hold on to, count on, rely upon. But of course, as the old adage goes, the only constant is change. How then do we understand the celebration of Christ the King Sunday, imagined some 95 years ago in response to rising secularism in the West? Clearly, declaring Christ is the King on the last Sunday of our liturgical year has not made it so. The world is ever more secular, particularly in North America.

But Henry Williams Baker offers us a lens into this Sunday celebration with lyrics he wrote in 1868. He writes, “The King of Love My Shepherd is….

Everything in the news in some way relates to the work the church is called to do – which is to bring peace and healing into this world. It is important then, to remind ourselves that in all spiritual work, we begin in exactly the place where we are, we ground ourselves in the reality of our world just as it is, in our moment, in our time. And from there, reflecting on your own situation, to move in a chosen direction.

A grounding principle is that when we seek goodness, when we seek compassion,

Observing Remembrance Day for those who follow the Prince of Peace is not a straightforward matter. We remember and are grateful for those who have died in war, yet we pray for peace. We honour solders, and yet, we take up the call to end war, and the need for soldiers of any kind.

Complexity in remembrance requires that we hold ourselves in a place of humility and offer grace. Humility and grace are two core pillars of Christianity, and two core virtues for all those working towards a more compassionate world. Humility allows that we do not hold the fullness of knowledge and are therefore open to new understandings and the wisdom others may offer. Grace is the giving of gift in purity, with no attachments.

November 1st is All Saints Day, a day when we remember and honour saints, both the famous and the unknown, the celebrated and the personal. And in our gathering today, we also reflect on the saintliness within our own muddled and often what appear to be, less than saintly lives.

The Gospel reading for All Saints Day is Mathew’s Beatitudes. We find Jesus beginning his Sermon on the Mount by breaking away from the set patterns of his faith, finding people exactly where they are in their lives, and calling them into a new narrative of their lives.

Throughout the world the numbers of infections from the pandemic climb, and the fractiousness and economic insecurity that dog the pandemic, continues. But in the midst of this disruption, are other disruptions, of a good nature, following as they do the inclusive ethics of our very own Jesus who welcomed everyone, without exception, without placing people in the tidy – but destructive – cubicles of categories.

As mostly young people take to the streets, demanding that we take seriously the care of the natural world and the care of one another, the spirit of Christ is alive and well under the grand cathedral of the sky. It has been let loose outside the tidy confines of church buildings, and this can only be a good thing

The Shelburne Primrose Pastoral Charge is part of the Western Ontario Waterways Region. The Region has met together several times since its inception and the switch over to the new governance within the United Church of Canada. But with Cov-id 19 all things are different this year and the region has been meeting this week and weekend via Zoom technology. The gathering began on Tuesday evening, continued on Thursday and Friday afternoon/evenings, and Saturday morning and afternoon. As well as the ministers from each church in the region, the WOW representatives attend the gatherings.

You do not have to live in a world biosphere to know the beauty that is around you. It is standing at your very front door, no matter where that door is. To walk into the sunshine, to gaze out the window at the changing light of the day, offers up the beauty of the universe, if we have hearts open to beatify and willing to see.

This is the heart of the Thanksgiving season – to understand what we have in front of us, and to be grateful for what we have. We live in uncertain times. But this is certain: to be grateful for the beauty of nature, to be appreciate for every single relationship we have right now, right here, to love ourselves and to love God and to love others, this is the fullness of life. And it is offered every day to us, mercifully, with no trace of yesterday upon it. Let us gather in gentleness and surround ourselves with grace, this very hour.

Like all of you we have been negotiating our way through the daily realities of the Cov-id 19 Pandemic, which is entering its second wave. We head into the Thanksgiving Season – with all of its memories of gathered families and celebration – with uncertainty, and the natural disappointment of not being able to gather in large groups as we once did.

In our Christian tradition, this Sunday is Worldwide Communion Day, a Sunday set aside where each denomination celebrates the Eucharist in its own way, but in solidarity with all others who attempt to follow in the way of love as taught and lived out by Jesus. And yet, for health and safety reasons, we are not allowed to have a communion service in the way we once did. But it may be. . .

It has been said repeatedly, that the only thing that is constant is change. A truth to be sure, but it is not so much fun to be living through a time when nothing seems to be holding steady, when daily the landscape shifts in surprising ways, revealing ways, and planning more than a week in advance is a thing of the past. But under it all, there are the constants that never leave us. There is the desire to connect one with another, in whatever way that is possible. There is the desire for life, and the fullness of life that makes for rich experience. There is the desire to avoid the inevitable fragility of being human, knowing we are but tissue paper wrapped up in a ribbon of hope, and perhaps, courage. There is the desire to love, to be touched by love, and all the many ways it pours forth into the world.

Now is the time to have faith in these things, in one another, in the mercy of God, and the endless embrace of the world. Be still, and know that God is God, and all is in its place. It is only we who are out of step, and must adjust the lens of our viewing.

In many Christian denominations we are in the liturgical season of creation, a time to reflect on the beauty of nature and our responsibility to be kindly caregivers of our precious ecosystem, which is currently in so much peril. We may begin by simply taking in the beauty that surrounds us at this time of year and contemplate the gifts that are given us daily for which we have not contributed, only received: the sunrise, the sunset, the frost tipping the trees and enlivening their rich colours, the roadsides alive with the yellow and purple of fall wild flowers, the fresh air that seems to bring the promise of new beginnings. And speaking of new beginnings, we offer a blessing for all those returning to school – to teachers and administrators, to children, to parents, who care for the students.. And we hope and pray that as the pandemic continues, there will nevertheless be ways for education to continue.

If you are breathing this very moment, it is certain that at least once in your life, though most probably many times, someone or some group of people have held a vigil for you. They have waited in love for you to be healed, to be well, to come home – to an actual home, or home to yourself. And it is also most likely that you have done the same for another – you have held a vigil for someone you loved to be healed, to be well, to come home, to themselves, to you, to where they belonged. And you did that because you loved them.

Love, make no mistake, is the single more powerful force in all the world. There is nothing else like it