This Sunday we will be doing something different. Worship will not be in the Sanctuary but will be out at the Amphitheatre at Saskatoon Island Park. To allow for travel time the service will start at 10:30. We will be celebrating Communion (once I figure out the logistics of how exactly we will do that). As you can see in the picture, the Amphitheatre has benches. However if you prefer some back support while seated you might want to bring a lawnchair to use.
The Scripture Readings that will be used during the service are:
- Acts 2:14-18
- 1 Peter 2:4-7
- John 15:1-12
There will be two reflection times (and two Times for the Young at Heart) during our gathering. One will look at Rocks and one will reflect on Bubbles, the Northern Lights and the Holy Spirit.
#1 Living Stones and Cornerstones:
Pentecost is a day when we remember the Holy Spirit moving us forward. However we can only move forward when we know who we are and have a vision of who we are becoming. Often we can only lift the sail and allow the wind to blow us around when we are secure in where we have come from. So that leads me to rocks. Peter talks about living stones and the cornerstone. The cornerstone is that thing on which the rest is built. The living stones are the structure which carries forward.
For the church the cornerstone is the God we meet in Jesus Christ, the God who has been part of the world since the beginning, the God who pushes the world to act in new ways even when 'the world' rejects that path.
Jesus told a story about two builders. One built on sand and the other on stone. What is the stone, what are the rocks on which our church is built (and I don't mean the building)?
#2 Lead, Spirit, Lead -- Into a New Future
This year the United Church of Canada turns 100. One of the tasks that comes with a significant anniversary is to remember, to look back at how we got here. One of the tasks is to look forward, to wonder where we might go next. The irony for the church is that we don't get to decide the answer to that question.
As we look into the future we can make intentional choices about how we will respond to current realities and trends. However the future of the church also relies on letting the untamed Spirit blow and lead us where God calls us to go.
In the Narnia books by C.S. Lewis we are often reminded that Aslan is not a tame lion. Aslan does not respond to the wishes/demands of Aslan's people -- the people need to listen for Aslan's wisdom and follow where he leads. So it is with God, especially the God we meet in the Holy Spirit. Like bubbles bouncing on the wind or Northern Lights dancing across the sky the Holy Spirit blows where she wishes, sometimes really visible and sometimes hard to see.
How do we grow into this untamed wind? How do we set sail and let the Spirit carry us into the uncertain future?
To me part of the answer lies in the teaching of the vine and branches. The branches reach out, spreading where they can. Sometimes they get pruned to redirect their energy, sometimes they are allowed to run wild. But they grow and remain strong because of their attachment to the root. We need to be grounded in Christ, grounded in God in order to have the freedom to blow with the wind. We need to both have an anchor that holds in the storms of life and to feel the winds of God and lift our sails.
That is how we will continue to be the church into the future -- God being our helper.
--Gord
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