This week’s sermon title, “This is a Day of New Beginnings,” is the title of the hymn I spoke of last week. Truly this is a day of new beginnings at Jackson Springs Presbyterian Church – a new class of elders installed, delayed by the months of the pandemic; six new members received into our church family at long last – they were planning the join in March of 2020 when everything closed down in the early days of the pandemic. The little disposable communion cup sets we’ve been using were placed in our brass communion trays, with members taking their cup from that tray on a table in the vestibule; the offering plate was brought from its place on that same table in the vestibule and placed on the communion table during the Musical Interlude, and we sang the Gloria Patri for the first time in many months. We had a reception after worship to celebrate the joys of this special day, and nearly everyone stayed to give thanks for this new beginning and the joy of being together again.
We’re back in the sanctuary after months outside and in the Fellowship Hall, and life is beginning to return to a sense of normal we haven’t known for over a year. While Sunday School, Presbyterian Women, Children’s Church and our Fifty-Plus Group won’t regather until September, we’re on the way!
We’re beginning to look each other in the eye again, instead of struggling to stay in touch virtually, online. We’re moving from fear and isolation to faith and fellowship; from division to cooperation; from distrust to understanding; and from unrest and dissatisfaction to a growing sense of peace and purpose. We’re beginning to use the words “we” and “us”, instead of “you” and “them.”
Yesterday marked the Day of Pentecost, the day of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, providing the community of faith with a sense of focus, direction, power and purpose. It’s as though God’s love sweeps down on the little community of believers waiting in Jerusalem, binds them together, then opens and fills them with the Holy Spirit, and then that same love sweeps them out into the larger world in witness and service.
May that same love sweep down on this little community of believers waiting in Jackson Springs, bind us together, open and fill us with Holy Spirit, then sweep us out into the larger world in witness and service.
“Christ is alive and goes before us,
To show and share what love can do.
This is a day of new beginnings;
Our God is making all things new.”
(from “This is a Day of New Beginnings,” by Brian Wren)
Elizabeth
This morning was our third Sunday back in the sanctuary. It was the Sunday we receive the Cents Ability Offering and I found myself introducing a toddler and his little brother to our mission quilt and globe and Children of the World Floor puzzle. The last time I shared with the children was so long ago, these little ones have no memory of it. A tiny hand touched the globe and moved the ribbon attached to Jackson Springs around one way to Israel, and back around the other way to India, and we spoke of the struggles boys and girls and their families are facing in those lands. We stood in a circle around the floor puzzle and the congregation joined in singing, “Jesus Loves the Little Children of the World.” It was so good to be able to share this special time with our little ones today.
Brian Wren’s wonderful hymn text came to minds as I reflected on the joy of this day in worship together, and I share it as we move forward together.
“This Is a Day of New Beginnings”
This is a day of new beginnings,
time to remember and move on,
time to believe what love is bringing,
laying to rest the pain that's gone.
For by the life and death of Jesus,
love's mighty Spirit, now as then,
can make for us a world of difference,
as faith and hope are born again.
Then let us, with the Spirit's daring,
step from the past and leave behind
our disappointment, guilt, and grieving,
seeking new paths, and sure to find.
Christ is alive, and goes before us
to show and share what love can do.
This is a day of new beginnings;
our God is making all things new.
Elizabeth
After fourteen years alone, my mother remarried at the age of 62. What a wonderful blessing this was for all concerned. She had a loving husband, my brother and I had a wonderful father, and our children had the world’s greatest “Papaw.” Thankfully, they were blessed with seventeen years together, and we were careful to make many memories together in those years, memories that comfort and encourage us all to this very day.
On their fifth wedding anniversary, I gave them a small framed print with these words:
Time is….
Too slow for those who wait,
Too swift for those who fear,
too long for those who grieve,
Too short for those who rejoice,
But for those who Love . . . .
Time is Eternity.
There’s so much to be faced in the living of our lives. Waiting, fearing, and grieving, all bring us burdens to bear, and times of rejoicing seem the shortest of all. It’s love that’s the timeless one. “Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things and endures all things…Love never ends.” ( I Cor 13:7-8)
I think a lot of time these days, and as I grow older, time is precious. When I was a seminary student, one summer I was part of a pastoral care team in a Presbyterian Retirement home. A dear friend there, in her 96th year, wrote a poem and one of the phrases of that poem is in my heart to this day: “Lord, help me to make the most of where I am in time.” In the book of Ecclesiastes, the “preacher” reminds us, “For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven … and God makes everything beautiful in its time.” (Ecclesiastes 3:1, 11) In Psalm 31:15, the psalmist reminds us, “My times are in God’s hands.”
Time – sometimes there’s too much of it, sometimes too little. What’s important is that we make the most of where we are in time. It’s good to be reminded that our times are in God’s hands and that God makes everything beautiful in its time.
Elizabeth