Looking Ahead to November 14, 2021 -- 25th Sunday After Pentecost, Proper 28B

 The Scripture Readings this week are:

• Hebrews 10:19-25
• 1 Peter 4:8-10

The Sermon Title is Provoked? To Love?

Early Thoughts: Have you been provoked to love in your life? What provoked you? How did the provoking change you?

One of the things that has most marked the last 20 months for me has been the change in, or even lack of, community. From Mid-March to Labour Day of 2020 all my worship offerings were to a camera with one other person in the room. From mid Advent 2020 to the end of May 2021 I was leading worship looking at a (basically) empty sanctuary -- the only other people in the room were either the singers behind me or the tech team way off in the back corner. As I read these verses from Hebrews with the line "not neglecting to meet together" that is the first image that comes to my mind. Covid-19 has certainly challenged us in how we gather as community, how we provoke each other to love, how we encourage and serve each other.

Christianity is a faith system based on community. It is by being together that we can encourage and provoke and challenge each other. In the last 20 months we have learned that there are a variety of ways to be together as a community. I have often wondered what this pandemic would have looked and felt like 20 years ago, when the tools we have for virtual connection were so much more limited (pretty much to the telephone). But still, it has not been the same as gathering together in the same space. One of the most consistent things I hear people express that they miss, that they grieve, is that ability to gather together, to be a community in person.

That being the case, that we desire and need to gather together, to be a community that encourages and provokes and serves each other, a key question (a stewardship question) must be "how do we support the creation and maintaining and growth of that community?".

God works in a variety of ways in our communities. God challenges us to use the gifts we have been given to serve (to love) each other. God provokes us to build communities where we in turn provoke each other to love and good deeds.

How have you been provoked? How have you provoked others?
--Gord