In the absence of the Minister a guest speaker delivers the morning message. After a lengthy sermon he said, 'I am sorry to have taken so long. I forgot my watch and I don't see a clock anywhere.' A voice came from the back of the church, 'There's a calendar on the wall beside you.'
('Make 'em smile '. Virginia Darnell)
Worship is the theme for this 5th Sunday of Easter.
We are well past Easter. The days are getting warmer and longer. We are in an "in between" time in the church year, but are called to keep the vision of Easter fresh.
The lectionary passages help us do that this coming Sunday. We are with Paul as he sows the seeds of the early church in Acts 17: 22-31. He comes into a new town, Athens, where the people are very religious, building shrines to all the gods of that time, including the unknown God. Then we reflect on John 14: 15-22 where we are promised the Holy Spirit, the One who makes God deeply intimate and known to us.
In one story we are confronted by something we all feel in our lives sometimes - the absence of God - and in the other story we are given a promise that this God is closer to us than we are to ourselves, because of the Holy Spirit who lives in our hearts. Two beautiful stories with a mystery and a promise of hope.
What I want to say this day is this: that through the act of worship, which we all do, we glimpse the God that we all want to find - even when some preacher or another may go overtime.
God bless and love you as you see and feel God's warmth in the changing season.
Rev Jackie
