Gathering Together Again

“And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)

“Remember the Sabbath day at keep it holy.” (Exodus 20:8)

We used to call it “Rally Sunday”. Then “Fall Kick-Off” Now it’s “Re-Gathering Sunday”. Whatever it is, it’s the first Sunday after Labor Day, and it feels as much like anytime as the start of a new year as we return to school and work, and the most “vacationy” time of the year is behind us. And in our American culture it’s the Sunday when we re-gather in our fullest sense, and feel the energy of greeting each other again as we worship and fellowship together.

I want to encourage you to be here with us!

Now, more than ever, it seems so important and rather counter-cultural to heed the commands and invitations to keeping the sabbath day, because not to remember it and keep it holy (hallow it) will inevitably lead to it’s loss.

Now I know all about cultural change, its habits and patterns, and how this has saturated our Christian culture too. 30 years ago, when I began in pastoral ministry, the stats were that 75 percent of church members attended Sunday worship 3 times a month. The stats now show us that 75 percent of us attend Sunday worship 2 times a month or less.

I share this NOT to guilt or shame in any way, but to rather ask with an inviting spirit that we all consider the ways we can re-engage with our spiritual community and practices on the sabbath day. The ancient themes are far from obligatory, instead positive and life-giving — prayer, and play, and food, and rest, and in it all re-membering ourselves — body, mind, and spirit, in the steadfast love of God.

I believe in this post-covid time of so many leaving spiritual community behind, it becomes more important for us to be together, to see each other, and to have some sense of living through life together than it used to be. I think also that it’s more difficult, more challenging, because it is no longer a normal cultural practice, and trends are leading us away from keeping the Lord’s Day the Lord’s Day.

But the thought remains, indeed God’s strong word that it’s embrace will be good for us and is necessary for our flourishing through the week ahead. I love how the Hebrew writer connects “meeting together” with “encouraging one another”. Worshipping God orders our lives in mercy and grace. Sunday School helps us to grow as disciples of Jesus. Sharing lunch sandwiches (around new round tables!) is nothing short of a family reunion, and our offerings in the lunch baskets will help our youth ministry thrive.

In our own local church context, my scan tells me that there are 375 of us who would say we are actively involved in the church and/or call Winnetka Covenant church our home. Let’s see what we can do to fill up the sanctuary and run clean out of sandwiches!

All the more, all the more as the practice fades from our culture, we need as people of faith to remember the sabbath day and hallow it. Now is a great time to renew that practice. Pray about it.

Upper Room All Age Celebration with coffee and treats, 9:30

Worship with choir, band, and handbells, 10:30

Sandwich Lunch, With offering for Youth Ministry, 11:30

Love From Here

Peter Hawkinson

Gathering Together Again

“And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:24-25)

“Remember the Sabbath day at keep it holy.” (Exodus 20:8)

We used to call it “Rally Sunday”. Then “Fall Kick-Off” Now it’s “Re-Gathering Sunday”. Whatever it is, it’s the first Sunday after Labor Day, and it feels as much like anytime as the start of a new year as we return to school and work, and the most “vacationy” time of the year is behind us. And in our American culture it’s the Sunday when we re-gather in our fullest sense, and feel the energy of greeting each other again as we worship and fellowship together.

I want to encourage you to be here with us!

Now, more than ever, it seems so important and rather counter-cultural to heed the commands and invitations to keeping the sabbath day, because not to remember it and keep it holy (hallow it) will inevitably lead to it’s loss.

Now I know all about cultural change, its habits and patterns, and how this has saturated our Christian culture too. 30 years ago, when I began in pastoral ministry, the stats were that 75 percent of church members attended Sunday worship 3 times a month. The stats now show us that 75 percent of us attend Sunday worship 2 times a month or less.

I share this NOT to guilt or shame in any way, but to rather ask with an inviting spirit that we all consider the ways we can re-engage with our spiritual community and practices on the sabbath day. The ancient themes are far from obligatory, instead positive and life-giving — prayer, and play, and food, and rest, and in it all re-membering ourselves — body, mind, and spirit, in the steadfast love of God.

I believe in this post-covid time of so many leaving spiritual community behind, it becomes more important for us to be together, to see each other, and to have some sense of living through life together than it used to be. I think also that it’s more difficult, more challenging, because it is no longer a normal cultural practice, and trends are leading us away from keeping the Lord’s Day the Lord’s Day.

But the thought remains, indeed God’s strong word that it’s embrace will be good for us and is necessary for our flourishing through the week ahead. I love how the Hebrew writer connects “meeting together” with “encouraging one another”. Worshipping God orders our lives in mercy and grace. Sunday School helps us to grow as disciples of Jesus. Sharing lunch sandwiches (around new round tables!) is nothing short of a family reunion, and our offerings in the lunch baskets will help our youth ministry thrive.

In our own local church context, my scan tells me that there are 375 of us who would say we are actively involved in the church and/or call Winnetka Covenant church our home. Let’s see what we can do to fill up the sanctuary and run clean out of sandwiches!

All the more, all the more as the practice fades from our culture, we need as people of faith to remember the sabbath day and hallow it. Now is a great time to renew that practice. Pray about it.

Upper Room All Age Celebration with coffee and treats, 9:30

Worship with choir, band, and handbells, 10:30

Sandwich Lunch, With offering for Youth Ministry, 11:30

Love From Here

Peter Hawkinson

SING!

Make a joyful noise to God, all the earth; sing the glory of his name; give to him glorious praise. (Psalm 66:1-2)

All together now– applause for God! Sing songs to the tune of his glory, set glory to the rhythms of his praise! (The Message)

Bear is all of a sudden singing! The first time it happened we were on our way home from the dog park, and when Tom Petty’s tune “Free Fallin‘” came on, and I turned it up (a required action with that tune!) Bear leapt from the back set to the front, sat down, stuck his nose up into the air, and started to sing. No Kidding! When the song ended, and Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” took over, back to the back seat he went.

I thought maybe it was some kind of coincidence, but soon Sarah related a similar experience. And then this past Tuesday, late afternoon while washing windows with Seals and Crofts blaring, Bear came into the middle of the living room and howled away with “Summer Breeze”. I wanted to include the video here but can’t, so you can find it on my Facebook page.

The point of it all is that Bear is reminding me that all creation gives thanks, and that despite all of life’s stresses, strains, and challenges, we can and ought to turn up the music of our lives and sing for joy to the Giver of all life and every good and perfect gift, including these gorgeous last blue days of summer.

Sometimes we just need to stop and sing. For me, that involves turning up the volume and singing along with a throated passion, in the spirit of Bruce Cockburn’s Lovers in a Dangerous Time — “Don’t the hours grow shorter as the days go by? We never get to stop and open our eyes. One minute your waiting for the sky to fall, next your dazzled by the beauty of it all…” Sometimes we just need to stop, and sing, and praise the Healer of our lives.

And sometimes for me it’s “Amazing Grace, How Sweet the Sound“, and “Lord, I Lift Your Name on High”, and sometimes its “All You Need is Love” and “Jesus is Just Alright”, or a personal favorite, “The Great Gig in The Sky” thanks to Pink Floyd — want a heavenly, glorious moment? Check it out. Or “Something’s Coming” from West Side Story or Edward Elgar’s Nimrod or Eric Whitacre’s Lux Aurumque. The point is that wherever I am, and whatever is going on, I can stop, mark the moment, turn up the music, and sing, which expresses the deepest parts of my soul.

Music, Plato said, “gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything.” and Shakespeare said, “If music be the food of love, play on.”

And singing, or humming, or “making a joyful noise” as the psalmist says it, attaches our spirit to that creative and beautiful offering someone else has concocted. Even bear has figured that one out!

So I challenge you. Sometime today, put on your headphones — sorry, I’m dating myself, earbuds — and turn up whatever connects with your soul, and join in the singing, and direct your soul’s gratitude to od, sing songs to the tune of his glory.

“We hear the bird-song ringing a many throated laud: shall not our tongues be singing our praise to Father God? My soul, lift up God’s greatness, a hearty song employ, to him who wills to find us and bring us endless joy.” Covenant Hymnal, 646, v. 2

and my “Bear Inspired” verse, NOT hymnal worthy:

“I have a singing partner, and his name is bear, he teaches me to stop, and sing the music everywhere. There is no inhibition, he lets his yelping sing, with him I praise my Maker, Giver of everything!”

Love From Here!

Peter Hawkinson