Worship Wednesday June 17

a time of prayer and reflection

Worship Wednesday June 10

This week’s worship Wednesday is on the theme justice, kindness and walking humbly with God.

Worship Wednesday June 3

This week’s worship Wednesday is on the theme of racism.

Worship Wednesday May 27

This week’s worship Wednesday is on the theme of creation

Worship Wednesday May 20

This week’s worship Wednesday is on gratitude.

Church Service May 17th

Online Church Service for May 17th

Rev. Miriam’s Sermon

The reading from Acts this morning is one of my favourite descriptions of the early church community. They are gathering together as much as they can. They are learning as much as they can about Jesus from the apostles. They are praying all the time. They are breaking bread and eating together. There was no roadmap for these early followers of Jesus on how to be a Christian. So they are learning as they go. They’ve kept it simple. Learning. Eating. Praying. Fellowship.

And it’s not surprising that this is what they are doing. Look at Jesus’ ministry. It was teaching, healing, praying and gathering with people. And food. Have you ever noticed how much of the Gospel revolves around food? Jesus was criticized for eating with the wrong people – namely sinners, prostitutes and tax collectors. He never let the criticism stop him. Then are the food related miracles of the loaves and fishes – Jesus feeds a huge crowd with a few loaves of bread and some fishes. In John’s Gospel, Jesus says, “I am the bread of life.” During the last meal Jesus shared with his disciples before his crucifixion, he takes a simple loaf of bread and offers it to them saying, “this is my body, broken for you.” Then he blesses a cup of wine and offers it to the saying, “this is my blood, shed for you.” By eating and drinking bread and wine we remember him.

One of the key features of the early Christian church is the hospitality of the gathering over food. The first line of our reading says, “They devoted themselves to the apostles teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers.” (Acts 2:42) Not only did they eat together all the time, but it also says that they had all things in common. The offering in the early community was the food that people brought to share with one another. For those who had nothing, it was a miracle and for those who had much, it was an act of faith. And day by day they grew in faith and numbers.

This hospitality had a lasting impact on the church. How many times have you been at a church function that doesn’t involve food? There is something about gathering at a table with others that holy and special. It is sacred to share food with one another as we share the joys and sorrows of our daily living. Now here we are in a pandemic and sharing food around a table is limited to those in our bubble. The radical hospitality that Jesus shared is not an option. Right now, no large gatherings are permitted. No church on Sundays. No extended family gatherings. No funerals or weddings. And it’s hard.

And even though these gatherings are not possible, I love the way people are being creative about different ways to gather. Churches are gathering on Zoom, Facebook and YouTube. I love being able to worship with Cochrane Street and then join church services across this country. Families are being just as creative. In my family, we have a zoom family gathering every week with family in Nova Scotia. We have driveway visits with Scott’s family. Last weekend we shared the same meal – Scott cooked and then packaged up food for every household and we ate together apart.

There is no roadmap on how to be a church in this time of the pandemic. As a church, we are asking ourselves questions we never asked before. How can we gather in new ways? How can we keep our communities connected? Can we have communion online? Is it still communion if we are gathered in separate houses but still somehow through the wonder of technology sharing the same meal? In the United Church we’ve said yes, it is still communion. We can still gather with the everyday food of bread and wine, to remember, to give thanks, to share in the new life Jesus offers.

It is like our shared family meal last weekend. We are together apart. Jesus, who boldly proclaimed that he was the bread of life, also reminds us that we are one body in Christ. We are all connected today as we share in gifts of bread and wine. Like those who gathered in the early church, we can eat with "glad and generous hearts." (Acts 2:46) Just like the early church community, we do not know what twists and turns lay ahead for us. Together we are building a new roadmap. In the uncertainty, we remain a community of believers. We continue to pray and break bread and give thanks. We continue to be the church.

As we eat and drink together, we are strengthened for the road ahead – whatever it holds. We are together apart. And together we continue to be God’s people at work in the world. Thanks be to God. Amen.

Worship Wednesday May 13

A time to reflect and pray. Thank You, Frances McNiven, for her poetry, Karen for reading, Evan for singing and Rev. Miriam for reflecting.

The Woman at the Well

On this day that honours the special women in our lives, our mothers, grandmothers, sisters, aunts, daughters and friends. I think also of the women of faith whose stories inspire me. As a little girl the first time I heard the story of Mary and Martha, I remember thinking to myself that I was always wanted to sit at Jesus' feet and learn from him. I'm in awe every time we tell the part of the Christmas story when the angel visits Mary. Every time Mary says yes to the unimaginable and improbably. I think of my namesake, Miriam, who boldly saved her brother Moses from the river and who led the people in their dancing. Time does not permit to talk about Eve, and Ruth and Esther and Rachel and Leah and Dorcas and all the unnamed women of the bible whose faith guides and inspires them in their daily living.

Our gospel reading is just one such example. When I’m tired and I feel drained, I turn to our gospel reading for the gentle reminder that Jesus not only loves us we are but offers us the kind of water the refreshes our souls.

Then she went to the well to that day to get water. She was spent. Tapped out. She was done with the whispers and the gossip. Yes, she was living with a man. No, she wasn’t married. She’d been married five times already. Life had not been kind. Five heartbreaks as she said her last goodbyes. So instead of going to the well with the rest of the women early in the day, she slipped out of her house at noon, when the sun was hot and she was guaranteed to be alone as she got her days’ supply of water.

And when she arrived at the well, there was a man there all by himself. He was not from Samaria. His people and her people do not get along. So you can understand why the woman can’t believe it when Jesus talks to her and asks her for a drink of water. She says to him, “How is it that you, ask a drink of me, a woman of Samaria?” (John 4:9) And he says, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ You would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” (John 4:10).

But he had no bucket and the well was deep. And she knew there was no way he could offer her anything. Yet she couldn’t seem to walk away. There is something about Jesus. He says, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but those who drink of the water that I will give them will never be thirsty. The water that I give will become in them a spring of water gushing up to eternal life.” (John 4:14) She says, “Sir, give me this water, so that I may never be thirsty.” (John 14:15)

I think it’s the kind of gift I need right now. Living water to refresh my soul. This is a really challenging time. There are good days when I think to myself, “I can do this staying home thing. We’ve got this.” There are the not so good days when it seems like everything is off track and nothing goes right. And think, “when is it going to be over?” Then there are the medium kind of days. When it's not great but not terrible and it seems manageable.

Into the challenge comes a special occasion. Mother’s Day. A day when we normally gather with our families. But this year there are no gatherings. And that is hard. It can a hard day for other reasons too. Maybe your parent is in seniors’ home and you are not allowed to visit. This is my first Mother’s Day without my mom Maybe you are like me and your grief is still fresh. Maybe your relationship is strained. Maybe your dream of having children never came to be or maybe you’ve lost a child.

Not matter where you find yourself today. Whether it’s a good day or a medium day or one of the hard ones, Jesus comes to you offering living water that refreshes the soul. Joyce’ Cowley’s poem “The Quiet Pool” reflects this well:

There is within each of us

a quiet clear pool of living water

fed by one deep Source

and inseparable from it’

but so often hidden

by a tangle of activity

that we may not know

of its existence.

We can spend the proverbial forty years

wandering in strange deserts,

sinking unrewarding wells,

and moving on, driven by our own thirst,

but when we stop still long enough

to look inside ourselves, really look

beyond our ideas about water

and what and where it should be,

we discover it was with us all the time,

that quiet clear pool which is ageless,

the meaning of our existence

and the answer to all our wanderings.

And as we drink,

we know what Jesus meant when he said

we’d never be thirsty again.

So grab your bucket, Jesus is offering you living water. It is your gift. May it give you strength on the hard days and joy on the good days. May it sustain you today and every day. Amen.

Worship Wednesday May 6

This week’s Worship Wednesday.

The Gate and The Shepherd

Scripture Reading: John 10:1 - 10

See below for a video of the service!

Today is the fourth Sunday after Easter. It is often called “Good Shepherd Sunday” because it is the Sunday we read the beloved 23rd Psalm and read one of the sections of John 10 about Jesus as the good shepherd. This year, as I read the first verses of John 10, I was struck that Jesus is both shepherd and the gatekeeper. Jesus is both the one who protects from the dangers that exist in the world and the one who waits at the gate ready to swing the doors open. The job of the gatekeeper is to open the door. The job of the shepherd is to keep from harm. So Jesus is at once the one who opens doors and the one who shuts out the danger.

There are many images for Jesus in the bible like Alpha and Omega or Lamb of God. In John’s Gospel, they come in the form “I am” statements like I am the light of the world. I am the good shepherd. How many of you remember that Jesus also says “I am the gate”? I’m guessing not many of us. Yet there it is, in John 10 verses 7 & 9. “I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pastures. (John 10:9)

When I think about gatekeepers, I don’t think about Jesus. I think about line ups at amusement parks or venues or airport security. And it this strange time at the grocery store. The security guards are standing there deciding who gets in and who has to wait and who does not get in. The gatekeeper is in control of who gets to enter.

But Jesus is not that kind of gate. He says, “whoever comes will be saved.” There are no criteria for admission. You don’t need to have earned a certain number of good person points. You don’t have to be a certain kind of person. You just walk in. There you find the good shepherd who keeps you from all harm. Jesus is the gatekeeper who lets you in and the good shepherd who shuts out the danger.

As I was thinking about Jesus being both gate and shepherd, I thought of the PLACE model I learned about this year. The PLACE model which is a model for community development. You may have heard about it in conjunction with the research done on the Fogo Island Inn. PLACE is an acronym with each letter representing one of the key pillars of the model. The letter that is both the most complicated and perhaps most important is the E which stands for engage both/and thinking. It is a paradox.

I think Jesus may have mastered both and thinking – he who is the gate and shepherd. He died to give life. He is both lamb and shepherd. Both and thinking stands in contrast to either or thinking. We can do it this way or that way. Both and thinking says we can do both this and that. It is a paradox that holds the tension between two ways living, thinking, doing, and being. For the PLACE model that means being at once local and global, having insiders and outsiders and so much more.

In the life of faith, we have those same kinds of tensions. The paradoxes are many. You are at the same time chosen, the shepherd calls you name and but you must choose to walk in the gate. In Psalm 23, God prepares a table for us in the presence of our enemies but the enemies sit at the table with us. Jesus is the gate through which we enter and the one who shuts out or shelters us from all that would harm us.

In this time of pandemic, we are living in a time paradox. Some days its seems like there is all the time in the world and somehow not enough time. We spend all our days with the people in our bubble (or our newly formed double bubbles) and no one else. Yet, I’ve never spent so much time talking and connecting to family and friends across Canada. There is a lot of scarcity right now especially for those who’ve lost jobs or business, or people who are living alone. Yet there is a different kind of abundance. An abundance of shared connections with all humanity as we stay home to flatten the curve and keep people safe. We are all in this together. Music and connections are abundant with others and with nature.

There is an abundance of genericity towards one another. We are looking out for each other in new ways. My friend Courtney who knows that I’m struggling to be mom, teacher and to work, sent me a helpful reminder this week from the MUM’s grapevine. It was the reminder I needed. It’s okay that the kids aren’t in school and I’m a terrible teacher. They may not be learning math and science. But maybe they are learning other things. Like how to enjoy the day or ride a bike or do laundry or make a meal. Maybe they are learning how to appreciate simple things and a slower pace. Maybe they are learning to live with less.

As we live into this new reality, the challenges will continue. We hold in tension so many things time and no time, scarcity and abundance, school learning and other ways of learning. And as we do, Jesus continues to hold the door open for us and we can still choose to walk through that gate saying yes to our God who shelters us, protects us, leads us beside still waters and restores our souls. To God, we offer the tension and paradox of our days, the scarcity and abundance, the time and no time, the laments and the celebrations. And as we do, we trust that our God is with us and that goodness and mercy will follow us all the days of our lives. Amen.

The Emmaus Road

The Emmaus Road by Rev. Miriam Bowlby

Luke 24:13 - 35

This is not how I imagined my first Sunday back with you again would look like nor is it how I imagined delivering my first sermon. I pictured myself gathering with this wonderful church community in our sanctuary. I imagined greeting friends old and new with a hug. Imagined praying with the choir just before church and Carol checking her watch to make sure we start on time. I imagined Evan at the organ and the choir in the loft and see of familiar faces in front of me as we began to worship. But everything changed so quick six weeks ago. And we are doing things differently. Even church. Instead, I'm leading church from my living room and you are joining from the comfort of your home. And even though it is different than I imagined, I still see a sea of familiar faces in front of me. Evan is still leading us in music and we continue to have the familiar rhythm of worship with its hymns and prayers. 

I imagine it’s a similar thing that Cleopas and the other disciple were going through as they walked those 7 miles from Jerusalem to Emmaus. They were trying to understand this strange new normal. They were trying to get back that feeling of familiarity. As they walked, they were going over every detail. How they gathered in an upper room. How he broke the bread and blessed the wine. How he prayed in the garden before the soldiers came. They remembered the horror of crucifixion.

As they walked, a stranger starts walking with them. It is Jesus but, in their grief, in the sorrow, their eyes were kept from realizing who this stranger was. I'm guessing it's like those times you are in a mall or store of the arena and you meet someone out of context. You don't recognize them because they are in the wrong place. As they walk the stranger asks, “what are you talking about?” And they can’t believe that this stranger even asked this question. Is he the only one who doesn’t know about Jesus?

So they tell him everything – about waiving the palms and the prayer in the garden and the bread and wine and the soldiers and the cross and the tomb. They pause for a moment. Almost afraid to say it. They say, "and some of our women, went to the tomb this morning. They say it was empty. They said there were angels. They said that Jesus is alive.” The two hang their heads, “but, but we had hoped he was the one to redeem Israel.”

 And can't we just imagine the pain of those few words. But we had hoped. And can't we understand it. But we had hoped schools would be open. But we had hoped staying home would be over and the virus is gone. But we had hoped they would get better. But we had hoped it would be different this time. But we had hoped the violence would be no more. But we had hoped…

 Silence hung in the air as they stood on that road. And after a few minutes, the stranger starts talking. Oh, how foolish you are. Don't you know it had to be this way? And he starts with Moses and tells the story of God's love and how in love God sends us Jesus. As the travellers arrive at Emmaus the stranger continues to walk. But they beg him to stay. It's getting dark they said. The day is almost over. Stay with us. As they sit at the table, he breaks bread and blesses it. And at that moment, their eyes are opened and they know that the women told the truth. The stranger disappears and the two fly back to Jerusalem. The find the disciples and say, "The Lord has risen indeed!" And they tell all those gathered in the room how their hearts were burning when the stranger opened up scripture to them and he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread.

            This is one of my favourite gospel stories. It has everything. Sorrow, hope, joy, transformation. It’s a reminder that Jesus comes to us in our need, in our brokenness reminding us that he is with us. It’s a reminder I needed in this week of violence and tragedy. Because somehow in the midst of this sorrow we need to find a hope we can cling to. This week I caught a glimpse of it as from across Canada shared in prayer for those who are hurting and suffering because of the mass shooting in Nova Scotia. People put candles in their windows. There were online vigils. Everyone finds a way in this time of separation finding a way to gather together to pray and to hold one another in love.

            Sheree Fitch, the well known children’s author wrote this poem. She said it just came to her…

Sheree Fitch Gilles Plante

April 20 at 8:46 AM

April 20, 2020.

Because We Love, We Cry.

Sometimes there is no sense to things my child
Sometimes there is no answer to the questions why
Sometimes things beyond all understanding
Sometimes, people die.

When it hurts like this, my child
When you are scared, suffering, confused
Even if we are not together
Together, let us cry

Remember there is so much love
Because we love, we cry.

Sometimes the sadness takes away your breath
Sometimes the pain seems endless, deep
Sometimes you cannot find the sun
Sometimes you wish you were asleep.

When it hurts like this, my child
When you are scared, suffering, confused
Even if we are not together,
Together, let us cry

Remember there is still so much love
Because we love, we cry.

Pray that I had answers, child
Pray this wasn’t so
There are impossible things, child
I cannot bear for you to know.

When it hurts like this, my child
When you are scared, suffering, confused
Even if we are not together
Together, let us cry

Yes, there is still so SO So much love
Because we love, we cry.

There is so much love and because we love we cry. Into our tears comes the blessed stranger, breaking bread, offering love and reminding us that we are not alone. Amen

Worship Wednesday for April 22

Here is the this weeks Worship Wednesday

Worship Wednesdays for April 15th

Please enjoy this time to reflect and pray

Rev. Heather Sandford's Easter Reflection

Reflection on the Resurrection

April 12, 2020

Cochran Street United Church

Poem by Iona Community:

It was on the Sunday

That he pulled the corn

They arrived with flowers,

Shuffling through the dawn

As the dawn snuffed out

The last candles of the night

Their faces betrayed their belief

That yesterday would always be better

Than tomorrow

Despite what he said.

He would not say it again,

So why bother to believe him on that score?

And the flowers,

They too were silent witnesses to disbelief.

Like the grass,

They were cut to be dried to death,

Cut off from the root

The bulb, the source of life.

He was the flower they cherished,

The flower now perished

Whose fate the lilies of the field,

Now tight in hand would re-enact

So when they passed the crouched figure

at the edge of the road

They thought little of him,

Scarcely seeing his form through their tears.

Had they looked even a little,

They would have seen a man

Letting a grain fall through his fingers,

Dropping to the earth

To die and yet to rise again

It was on the Sunday

That he pulled the corn.

This poem does nice work of sharing the emotions of the women as they walked to the tomb that morning. Feelings of pain, sadness, confusion all muddled together with disbelief. What had just happened, their teacher, friend and messiah, lie in the grave. It was not supposed to be, he had told them of a different way. He told them of stories like, if a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies it will bear much fruit. All that was forgotten in that moment of great sadness and despair.

As the women approached the tomb that morning a great earthquake shook the earth and rolled the stone away, and an angel of the Lord came down. This rendered the roman guards unconscious. When the angel of the Lord spoke he told them, "Do not be afraid; I know that you are looking for Jesus who was crucified. He is not here; for he has been raised." The women were invited to go and see the place where he lay and then instructed to go quickly to tell the other disciples that Jesus had been raised and they were to go to Galilee where they would see him.

The tomb was not the end of the story, in many ways, it is the beginning of a story. Death had not had the final word the tomb is empty and the instructions have been given to go and tell the others and meet the risen Lord. The instructions to go and tell reminded the women and us that we cannot stay in this moment of resurrection, that our work is not in the empty tomb our work is in the world with the risen Christ.

In Matthew's Gospel, as in the other Gospels, the resurrection seems to finds us, even when we are not seeking it. The resurrection found the women as they were walking to tell the disciples what they had seen. Jesus met them and said, "Greetings!" And they came to him, took hold of his feet and worshipped him. Jesus met the women, he found them and allowed them to worship him as they took in the reality of what was happening.

Both the angel and the risen Christ reminded the women to not be afraid. How could they not be afraid, they had not experienced this before. First Jesus is dead and now he is alive to say nothing of the angel at the tomb.

This Easter is very different one for all of us. We are asked not to celebrate with our family and close friends, due to the coronavirus. We stay in where it is safe and only venture out when we have to. Our Easter dinners where we would've been together laughing sharing stories in person, we need to imagine in a different way.

This year more than ever let us hear the words of the angel and the risen Christ, “do not be afraid”. The risen Christ finds us we do not have to search for him. That is our hope, that is our promise. We as people of faith know that hope in the risen Christ can brighten even the darkest of nights even though we are practising physical distancing and staying home except for essentials, the resurrection has happened and has found us. In less than ideal circumstances, Christ has risen.

The final piece in the story of the resurrection in Matthew's Gospel is that because of his death we are even closer to the Christ among us. In the gospel reading, the angel tells the women to tell the disciples what happened. When Jesus instructs the women to go and tell, he refers to the disciples as brothers. After the resurrection, there was more of a sense of family amongst them. Because of Jesus' life, death and resurrection we are all siblings in Christ. The risen Christ brings people together in a spirit of love and generosity, even if we can't physically be together this year.

Today we have gathered to celebrate the risen Lord. We are free to go and live in the resurrection promises of new life, hope, joy and love. We are an Easter people and our ministry is done in the light of the resurrection. We know that this is just the beginning of the story. Death does not have the final word, Jesus is risen! Now that deserves a Hallelujah! Praise be to God! Amen.

Worship Wednesday for April 8