The last year has been a wild and amazing ride. God has done some great things, and so we wanted to spend a bit of time and look back at 2011.
Click the picture above to read the 2011 Eucharist Year In Review!
Please keep us in prayer and thought this year, as we move ahead in what God is calling us to be. It’s been great so far, but God is just getting started in and with us.
Grace/peace.
The way you view the birth of Jesus depends a lot on where you’re standing.
To the Shepherds it was a message of good news, to Herod it was a threat.
The Angel’s saw their Masters humility and the Ox wondered about his children’s future.
But Mary treasured all these things, pondering them in her heart.
So we invite you to join us this Advent season, and journey with us on the road to Incarnation.
Wherever you stand on the spectrum of life and faith, we believe God has something to say to you.
Advent is coming…
For year two of Eucharist, we thought it would be a good time to dive into a book of the bible and just work through it, week after week. Of all the books we looked over it was 1 Corinthians that continued to jump off the page again and again. 1 Corinthians is a letter, written by an early Christian pastor, who had planted a church in the city of Corinth.
So we are going to begin a study of the book of 1 Corinthians, which will take us about a year to work through.
Yes, you read that right. A year. Serious stuff.
The book is a journey of the wonderful and the bizarre - fractions in the church, a man sleeping with his mother-in-law, head coverings, our resurrected bodies, getting drunk off communion wine, suing your family to get more stuff, food sacrificed to idols, spiritual gifts, the way of love, and the body that holds it all together.
And at the end of the day, that is what this letter is all about: the body that holds this mess together.
In Greek (the original language of the letter) the word for body is “Soma.”
Soma.
The physical body you care for? Soma. A church community loving each other? Soma. The sun, the moon, and the stars? Soma. Bread and wine at the communion table? Soma.
The word Soma is used over thirty times in 1 Corinthians, far more than in any other New Testament writing, because 1 Corinthians is a letter about a body.
That body is broken and bruised, tired and worn, but it manages to hold all these worlds together. It seems like it ought to fall apart, like there is no possible way it will hold together, but it does.
And it is possible for that body to become animated by God. Even that body can find new life.
And it can actually become beautiful and strong and compelling and Spirit-filled; and it can begin to change a city.
Sure, we can give a year to that.
If you were to ask most people what the central image of the Christian faith is, you would most certainly hear “the cross.”
The cross, for so many of us, has been the driving image of Christianity. The cross is where evil did it’s worst, and God did his best; where sin killed, but life reigned; where fear screamed, but love whispered. The cross was that moment where God took the weight of the world’s sins on to his own shoulders, and defeated it once and for all.
You would be right in saying that the cross is the central image of the Christian faith, but there is another image in the Christian faith, one that is almost (or equally) as important - that image is the meal.
From Genesis to Revelation, in gardens, deserts, foreign lands, and upper rooms; God has continually gathered his people around a meal. The power behind that meal was captured in a single moment when Jesus, sharing a meal with his disciples, took bread and wine, gave thanks, and said “This is my body, given for you. This is my blood, shed for you.”
Since that meal, people have gathered in Jesus’ name, and have continued this ancient ritual; breaking bread and drinking wine in remembrance of him. That meal became known as the eucharist.
This ritual was usually linked to a whole meal, with people from all sorts of different worlds coming together to eat, drink, remember, sing, share and laugh.
A funny thing happens when you share a meal - you become family.
This meal tore down walls that divided people, grounded them in the same story and the same hope. It connected them to God and to others. It created a new sort of person; a new creation, being formed right in the midst of this old one.
When we started our Sunday gathering we spent three weeks looking at the Eucharist. To celebrate the start of our second year, we are going to again look at the eucharist, and the common meal. It’s “Bread & Wine 2011 - Revisited, Reloaded, This-time-it’s-cosmic, etc, etc.”
Sept 11 2011 - We Need Bigger Tables - (Love Feast to follow)
Sept 18 2011 - Wine, not juice
Sept 25 2011 - F(e)asting
I mean it’s weird. What’s the basis of Christianity? It’s really a meal, it’s communion right? It’s the Eucharist. That’s it, it’s the sharing a meal with your neighbours and what is that meal? It’s the body and blood of Christ. Basically God offering himself up to you as nutrition. Haha, that’s pretty weird. It’s pretty weird if you think about that, that’s the basis of your faith. You know, God is supplying a kind of refreshment and food for a meal. Everything else is just accessories and it’s vital of course, baptism and marriage, and there’s always the sacraments and praying and the Holy Spirit and all this stuff but really fundamentally it’s just about a meal.
- Sufjan Stevens
Because I am My beloved’s
And My beloved’s Mine;
So, you bring all your history,
I’ll bring the bread and wine.
Then we’ll have us a party
Where all the drinks are on Me
And as surely as the rising sun
Oh, you will be set free,- Derek Webb, Lover
When God rescued his people from slavery, he gave them a specific command: take one day a week and rest. Don’t produce, don’t create, don’t work - simply rest, pray, and play.
(We’ve talked about this before!)
As Christians, we believe that rhythm is crucial to our lives, and that without it we can work ourselves into burn-out, or fail to work as hard as we ought.
There is a rhythm to life, a pattern that creation falls into. We often talk about Sabbath as individuals, but we also need rest as a community.
Which is why, from July 10 to August 21, we are going to take a season of rest as a community. We will still gather on Sunday, but the service will be unplugged; singing only songs from the hymnal (!), with brisk “heat-appropriate” sermons, and time to hang out together afterwards.
The fact is, this year has been amazing! Parties in the park, people meeting Jesus, Christmas sing-a-longs, baby dedicating, bike blessings, and a Mass for the End of the World - our church is growing into a healthy, God-loving, Jesus-following community. It’s all been amazing, but it has been a lot of work, and we need to fall into Sabbath rest.
So we are going to take seven weeks. Seven weeks to recharge, to catch our breath, to simply enjoy God’s good gifts: to pray and play.
And then, come fall, it’s time to hit it all over again!
Also, throughout the Summer we will be meeting in Gage Park every Wednesday at 5:30. Look for us at the west end of the park, between the band shell and the splash pad.
This is going to be a great season for our church - see you Sunday!
This is quickly arriving, which means we need to talk about this!
Starting June 19, we will be spending three weeks examining the theological imagination, and learning how God, creativity, art, and justice intersect! It will be a great way to prepare for our amazing day camp, and to dive into this fascinating topic.
For more information on All Aboard, or to register your child, please click here!
We work for it, think about it, dream of what we would do with it; our world is obsessed with money.
But when it comes to money, the church is often silent.
The job of the Christian is to confront the false gods of the day. Today, the god of money reigns.
We need to confront this false god. We need to believe that there is a better way, and a better God. We need to know how to use our money as a tool, how to rebel against the myths of our culture, and how to create a world that is generous.
Perhaps most of all, we need to understand Jesus’ words: “you cannot serve both God and money.”
Blessing of the Bikes 2011
What a huge success! Thanks to everyone who helped plan and execute Hamilton’s first official Blessing of the Bikes!
We hope this is the start of a long, wonderful tradition.
Highlights include the Mayor honking and waving at us, the smiles that lit up as we biked by, New Hope Bike Co-op’s repairs with “the pig”, and the five year old who rode the whole way like a champ!
The Hamilton Spectator even wrote about it!
See you next year for Blessing of the Bikes 2012!
Easter 2011
He is Risen!
Just wanted to put up a few pictures from our Resurrection Celebration!
Jesus is victor over every power; even death.
Click to hear more about the greatest moment in human history.
