The Church of Christ, in Every Age

It's Pentecost today - a remembrance and celebration of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the apostles and the church that was to come. I went to church this morning after missing last week...it was my first time back at Advent Lutheran since early April and felt like a true homecoming. I feel so fortunate to have found such a warm and open congregation with whom to worship. The theme of today's sermon was "God is love" - a very basic message but one that we often seem to lose sight of. As Christians we are called above all else to love each other, whether friends, acquaintances or strangers and regardless of class, creed, background, etc. What does it mean to be "church" today or rather, how is the Spirit calling the Church to be/show God's love on this earth? An important and necessary question to ask ourselves on this day of Pentecost. God has sent her Spirit to be among us, to guide us and lead us in love. The church has a responsibility to model this radical love to all the world, particularly when it comes to honouring, embracing and standing in solidarity with our gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered, transsexual and queer neighbours.

I wanted to share the lyrics of one of the hymns we sang this morning. This is a familiar one but the words had never struck me the way they did this morning. A very 'social gospel' themed hymn, I think we should sing this every Sunday to remind us of what it means to be a church in any age:

The church of Christ in every age,
beset by change but Spirit-led,
must claim and test its heritage
and keep on rising from the dead.

Across the world, across the street,
the victims of injustice cry
for shelter and for bread to eat,
and never live until they die.

Then let the servant church arise,
a caring church that longs to be
a partner in Christ's sacrifice,
and clothed in Christ's humanity.

For he alone, whose blood was shed,
can cure the fever in our blood,
and teach us how to share our bread
and feed the starving multitude.

We have no mission but to serve
in full obedience to our Lord:
to care for all, without reserve,
and spread his liberating word.

Words: Fred Pratt Green
Words © 1971 by Hope Publishing Co., Carol Stream, IL 60188.
All rights reserved. Used by permission.
For permission to reproduce this hymn, contact:
In US & Canada: Hope Publishing Company, www.hopepublishing.com
Rest of the World: Stainer & Bell Ltd., www.stainer.co.uk

Summer School

This summer I am taking my first summer course ever: Canadian Political Theologies. I have been surprised (or maybe not) by how hard it has been to motivate myself for this course. I don't have to take any summer courses but this one sounded really interesting and is only a summer offering so I went for it. And it's not like I have anything more productive to do with my time. But it seems to come down to the reality that summer and school should just not go together. I need my four month break from studies...my head is not in the right space to do school in the 'off-season.' My motivation difficulties aside, this course is actually pretty interesting. We've been learning about the Social Gospel movement, Christian Socialism, Roman Catholic social teachings, etc. and the influence they have had on the Canadian political scene. As much as Canada has become a secular society, these movements have left an indelible mark on our political and social system - go CCF-NDP! I guess the question we are asking throughout this course is: what political role should/can the church play in our current context? Probably not a question many Lutherans might ask themselves...we don't have much of a history of political activism in Canada.

In other news, I have found a placement for my contextual education course next year. I will be spending my 8 hours a week at Toronto Urban Native Ministry, which I am very excited about. I don't know many more details at this point but I met with the man who will be my supervisor earlier this week and I think it will be a great placement. Hoping to learn lots about Aboriginal culture and Christianity, and also to discern ways in which I might play a role in the healing of the relationship between First Nations people and the rest of Canadians.

Back in the T.dot

I have arrived safely back in Toronto, for all those of you who may have been concerned. And for those of who you didn't even know I had been away. I just spent two wonderful weeks in western Canada - 4 days in Vancouver and 11 in Regina. It was a relatively quick trip and I was most certainly not ready to leave Regina but I guess it had to be done. I took a walk this evening to explore my new surroundings a little more...there's a lovely bike trail that begins at the end of my block and I ventured as far as the Canadian National Exhibition and Ontario Place. It was actually a very beautiful night in Toronto. I have to admit that the sky was looking pretty nice...which is a big compliment coming from a prairie girl. Although it was no Saskatchewan sky.

Kind of fun...my flight this morning was delayed. Initially I was meant to fly to Calgary and then on to Toronto but when I showed up at the airport they offered to book me on a direct flight leaving at 11:20am. It meant a little more sitting around the airport (I was originally supposed to leave at 9:50) but I still ended up arriving in Toronto earlier than I would have otherwise. To make the deal even sweeter, I was given $7 of complimentary snacks on my flight because they had changed my flight - how great is that!

Well I'm still on Saskatchewan time but it's 11:30 here and I have commitments tomorrow so I guess I should try and sleep.