Streams of Mercy

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