Sacrifice

Our conversation about Lent continued this week. This is really just one small piece of a much longer discussion. A question arose about “sacrifice” – what is it? Is it necessary? How does it relate to our lives?

One thought was that if we’re living our lives every day making smart choices, not wasting, taking care of the earth by not buying too much might “look like” a life of sacrifice but it really isn’t.

This reminds me of an essay I read recently by one of my favourite authors, Ann Patchett: My Year of No Shopping. Challenged by a friend Ann decided to not buy anything for a year. Oh not necessaries like groceries and shampoo. But all that other stuff she was buying just because she likes things like a new sweater, some perfume, a snazzy purse or even an extra kettle (because who knew they even made red kettles?)

It didn’t take her very long to notice that she had lots more time. And that there was more money in her last year’s purse. But what surprised her was her emerging sense of people who had much less. It was as if the “extra space in her brain made room for the poor.” Her friend too had continued the practice of not shopping and discovered that “Our capacity to give is huge.” Patchett discovered in the end “I still have plenty. I know there’s a big difference between not buying things and not being able to buy things. Not shopping for a year hardly makes me one with the poor but it’s put me on a path of figuring ot what I can do to help.”

I compared this way of thinking to what happened to us as we gave up our church building and approach Lent this year a little like a group who’ve become “homeless.” Like Ann we’re by no means anywhere near the real homeless, but we’ve become more aware of what it means to truly be without things we might have taken for granted before. And all the things we truly didn't need. Our capacity to help grew larger, but more important our desire to help expanded.

That’s where my Lenten meditation leads me today.

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A Word About Worship

I recently read a post suggesting that worship in smaller congregations might be challenging because those who had the task of “planning, presiding and preaching” were probably older and thus would have less energy and capacity for connecting with community. The writer went on to offer a perfectly viable option for such groups.

I’d like to tell you what our group did when we faced this dilemma. We took another look at worship.

More than two years ago now we realized that the leadership in our congregation really had got to a point where the dwindling numbers of “preachers, presiders and planners” were indeed running low on energy. And that our building and worship responsibilities got in the way of our concern for our neighbours. We were out of synch with our mission and had little time or capacity for the enduring principles we claimed.

So we came up with a new Worship Template.

We don’t have any quarrel with the traditional service, usually centred around a sermon by one of our priesthood leaders. But that model wasn’t working for us anymore and was burning out the very ones we looked to for leadership.

We put together a new “recipe” for our gathering times. From a new list we choose the bits that fit the theme or suit our needs or current projects. Usually there are enough elements that the planner really wants to do that we end up with pretty well-rounded worship experiences. And because we’re all committed to “noticing” we find many opportunities to encounter the Divine in our times together.

Here's our list: (select one or more; never all)

Welcome, Greet the Community
Peace prayer, or peace lesson
Music (vocal, instrumental or recorded)
Mission lesson (some lesson or sermon consistent with a mission initiative or scripture theme)
Enduring principles Lesson (illustrate via story, video or scripture)
Disciples Generous Response (may incorporate stories/ prayer)
Prayer or Spiritual Practice (from the whole range available)

Our worship experiences have been more varied and interesting as each planner has the whole range of things to choose from. We’ve gone for spirit-filled walks thinking about the “sacredness or creation” or dwelt on the words of a challenging hymn. We’ve heard members tell of their passion for elephants or honey bees. Our ESL teacher shared about their work in a richly diverse group of international students. It was evident to us all that she/they truly are building a community of joy, hope, love and peace together.

We do table church too, and enjoy the “work” of worship while we talk about the needs of our neighbours and plan next how to serve them. This kind of worship energizes and nurtures us for our mission.

(Send a message if you’d like to hear more about our New Worship Template and some examples.) It's a long one this week. Hopefully folks will stick around to read it all

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March Break

Sunday marked the beginning of March Break and daylight saving time.

We decided to take a little break too. So we gathered at 11:30 instead of 10:30. (I’ve long wondered why our group of mostly retired people needed to lose an hour’s sleep and stress about being late when all we had to do was change our start time.)

We chose instead to meet for a potluck brunch at Sharon and Daniel’s. It was lovely to share good food and lots of visiting around their big dining room table. We took the time to read some of the “thank yous” we’ve received and celebrate some of our recent projects.

From the Guelph Children’s Foundation came a long newsy letter. We’re long-time partners and love to hear about the more than 1600 families helped at Christmas! We especially liked this paragraph:

“How wonderful is it to know that you gave so much more than a tangible gift? You gave hope. You gave relief. You gave connection. You gave a parent or caregiver the opportunity to show their child that they love and care about them. You reinforced for a child or youth that they have people in their lives that truly and deeply listen to and care about them.

As we move into the warmer months ahead, please know that your generosity continues to resonate throughout our community. The impact of your kindness extends far beyond the physical gifts—it creates moments of joy, builds confidence, and strengthens relationships.”

And in response to our underwear project came this:

“It’s amazing how big an impact can come from small acts of generosity. As we often say, “the value of one, the power of many.” Your Jan-uwear-y, Feb-uwear-y project is a perfect example of that, and we are beyond grateful.

Thanks to you and your church community, we received more than 80 undergarments.

These essentials will go directly to those who need them most, providing comfort and dignity to our community.”

“Comfort and dignity” are really good words that made us smile. Here we are delivering five bags of underwear to Hope House.

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Lent

I’m writing this on Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent in the liturgical calendar. Here are some of my thoughts as I consider what these things mean to our little community and what we’re doing as a congregation in this special season.

We started up our weekly discussion gatherings yesterday. It’s been more than a month since this group was able to get together. Winter weather, snow-packed roads and nasty viruses all conspired to keep us apart. But we determined to meet this Tuesday. Reflecting on our conversation I realize that we didn’t really think about Ash Wednesday. Maybe that could stand as an example of “confession” that IS part of the Ash Wednesday tradition. What we DID talk about just what do the traditional prayers we use in our various services mean. What do we mean when we promise to “take up on us” Jesus name? What are we really doing when we pray the “peace prayer”? Is it enough that we’ve been praying a peace prayer for many, many years?

Then we examined our efforts to do more than talk about those things. Our budget, recently passed, includes three items labelled “pursuit of peace.” We took a hard look at those three things and asked ourselves if our intention to pursue peace is actually moving the bar. The three things were support of Encounter World Religions, our bursary in support of music education for young children and our Prayer Shawl ministry.

Encounter recently reported projects to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, police education and the importance of religious literacy in work places, schools, and more. We uphold these things and we continue to support and follow Encounter’s work.

Music education gives young children a tool for finding joy and peace in their own lives and helps model participation and interaction between parents and children and, we hope, promotes peace in families.

Prayer shawls continue to provide that much needed warm hug in time of personal illness or distress and, yes, lack of peace for individuals.

So what do these have to do with Lent? Lent is time of personal reflection and intentional spiritual work. We confess where we have fallen short and work in a mindful way to make necessary change. This is the time we take honest stock of ourselves and repent where we can. We leave behind practices done out of habit only and try to get in synch with our truest, best intentions.

I confess that I didn’t give Lent a thought yesterday, but on reflection I think what we did do can well fit into a Lenten basket. And I hope you’ll join me as we embark on the journey toward Easter with intention and resolve.

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