Looking Forward to April 27, 2008 -- Easter 6, Camping Sunday

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• From the Life of the Early Church: Acts 17:22-31
• Psalm 148
• From the Gospel: John 13:31-35

The Hymns this week are:

• MV #122 This is the Day (Insert)
• This Little Light of Mine (insert)
• They’ll Know We Are Christians (insert)
• #289 It Only Takes a Spark

The Minute for Mission this week will be about the 7 Wonders of the Conference, ballots will be available so vote casting/stuffing can begin.

The Sermon this week is Church Camping – an Experience of Loving Community

Early Thoughts: On the last Sunday of April we are invited to remember the importance of camping ministry. Church camping is outreach, it is christian education and nurture, it is fellowship. For a week at camp we set up a new community, one that works a bit differently from the communities where we live the rest of the year. This week we will have a presentation about the camp that this church participates in with the rest of the United Churches in our district. ANd maybe we will get excited again about the possibilities that camping brings.

Voting Begins

The Conference of MAnitoba and Northwestern Ontario is having a fundraiser for the Mission & Service Fund. THE fundraiser is called the 7 Wonders of the COnference. For the last while foks have been invited to submit nominations.

Now the voting begins. Votes are $5 a piece for the M&S fund. This is certainly a case of "vote early, vote often" since there is no limit on how often one may vote. SOme plans for vote-stuffing have already been discussed by some nominees/nominators. (And indeed vote stuffing is encouraged since each vote os a fundraiser)

Riverview's pie making is one of the nominees! Can we get it into the top 7???!!!???

Check it out, information about how to vote is available at the link. ANd there will be more information shared soon at a church near you...

Looking Ahead to April 20, 2008 -- 5th Sunday of Easter, Earth Day

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• From the Jewish Scriptures: Genesis 2:4-15, 18-22
• Psalm 8 (VU p.732)
• From the Jewish Scriptures: Exodus 3:1-5

The Hymns this week are:

• 217 All Creatures of Our God and King
• 296 This is God’s Wondrous World
• 307 Touch the Earth Lightly
• 303 For Beauty of Prairies

The Meditation/Discussion title is: Holy Ground

Early Thoughts: What does it mean to talk about the Earth as holy ground? How does it change our attitudes to realize we walk on holy ground? OR does it?

These are hard questions to face. For those of us in resource-based communities much of the enviro-talk spells economic disaster. What does it mean to talk about less forestry/tree harvesting? What about closing power plants (and NOT replacing the power they produce)? On the other hand, some climate change models move this area right out of the boreal forest. What does that do to our economic base?

This Sunday we will pause to reflect on what it means to walk on Holy Ground. We will also take time to talk with each other about these questions.

Change is inevitable. The question for us is will we help shape the change or just be shaped by it? How do we respond to a changing world and a changing climate?
--Gord

Bulletin Cover Collage

Many thanks to Lorena for this striking addition to the church decor!

Looking Ahead to April 13, 2008 -- 4th Sunday of Easter

The Scripture Readings for this week are:

• From the Life of the Early Church: Acts 2:42-47
• From the Letters of the Early Church: 1 Peter 2:19-25
• From the Gospel: John 10:1-10

The Hymns for this week are:

• 371 Open My Eyes, That I May See
• 747 Psalm 23
• 688 O Day of God, Draw Nigh
• 427 To Show by Touch and Word

The Sermon title is Communal Support

Early Thoughts: Early in our faith story we hear the question "am I my brother's keeper?". It appears that the answer may well be yes (sort of).

This passage from Acts talks a little bit about how the Early JEsus-community (this is before an organized church or the term Christian came about)tried to operate itself. ANd it appears that they were caring for each other in a way that most people these days would call communist.

But of course Marx has nothing on this group. THe early church sharedd what they had, not out of political-economic theory but out of faith. It was their way of living in the Way of the One who taught to love your neighbour as you love yourself. THey not only shared their wordly goods, they worshipped and prayed and ate together. Everything was done in common, life was shared completely.

We have a duty to care for each other, to that extent we are our brother's and sister's keepers. We are called to live so that all can live abundant lives. We are part of a community of faith. ANd you can't spell community without commun(e). Communal support is part of our faith.
--Gord

Talent Auction

On Saturday April 5 Riverview will host a Dessert Party and Talent Auction.

The dessert party and silent auction will begin at 6:30 and the live auction (with Lanny Cross as auctioneer) will begin at 7:00.

IF you have something you wish to add to the auction please let us know at the church.

If you have any questions please call the church office.

Looking Ahead to April 6, 2008 -- 3rd Sunday of Easter

The Scripture Readings this week are:

• From the Jewish Scriptures: Ezekiel 37:1-10
• Psalm 116 (VU p. 836)
• From the Letters of the Church: 1 Corinthians 15: 35-44
• From the Gospel: Luke 24:13-35

The Hymns this week are:

• 382 Breathe on Me Breath of God
• 182 Stay with Us Through the Night
• 183 We Meet You, O Christ (tune??)
• 586 We Shall Go Out With Hope of Resurrection

The Sermon title is New Life, Changed Life

Early Thoughts: Resurrection is more than resuscitation, it is transformation. Maybe that is part of why it is so hard to see?

One of the striking points of the appearance stories is how often Jesus' friends don't recognize him after the Resurrection. In John's account Mary mistakes him for the gardener, in this passage from Luke he is seen as simply another anonymous traveler on the road. There is a message there. There is a hint that there is something transforming about resurrection, where what is raised is not really the same as what has died.

Last week we talked about the seed that falls into the ground and dies to be reborn. That is indeed an old and wonderful metaphor for the Easter event. But, like all metaphors, it is limited. The limit of the seed metaphor is that a seed will always give the plant from which it came. One doesn't plant a sunflower and expect to get tomatoes (or if you do, prepare to be disappointed). In someways that is what Resurrection is. But in someways it isn't. There is transformation in the seed, but the transformation of Resurrection can be far deeper.

This week I am thinking of the butterfly. AS a child I remember having trouble believing that butterflies and caterpillars were the same animal (at least when I was first told -- I did catch on eventually). There is certainly a link between the two but the transformation is total. The end result looks little like the beginning. In my mind this is a side to resurrection we need to remember more often.

When we pray for resurrection to be made real in our lives we need to remember that we are praying to be transformed. The new life is a changed life. And yes, we do need to be changed to be resurrected. What would that type of resurrection mean in our world today? How do we embrace it?
--Gord

Minsterial Musings (From the upcoming Newsletter)

As I sit down to write this I find myself thinking about Spring, despite the 4 inches of snow that have fallen in the last 48 hours. And with thoughts of Spring come thoughts of Easter and new life and resurrection (not surprising since Easter Sunday was only 3 days ago).

As I look at the world around me this Easter season I find that I am pressed to ask “What does resurrection mean in this place and time?”. In the face of financial struggles, a graying congregation and increasing costs, what does resurrection mean for Riverview? In the face of a dying forestry industry, aging infrastructure, and limited employment what does resurrection mean for Atikokan? In the face of warfare, economic globalization and political uncertainty, what does resurrection mean for the world?

To tell the truth I am not entirely sure what the answer to any of those questions is. Resurrection is hard to predict, both in time and in form. We don't get to choose when and how Easter breaks into our worlds. And this is both challenge and opportunity.

It is a challenge because we like to be in control. We like to believe that we can decide what the future will bring us. But we aren't in control. The challenge of resurrection is both that it comes up unexpectedly, unlooked for, like a thief in the night and that it comes in forms that we don't expect, sometimes can't even predict. Resurrection is not a matter of resuscitating what once was. It is not a return to the same-old way of being. It is a transforming experience, one that moves us

And once we give in to the lack of control we can find the opportunity. The transforming effect of resurrection provides an opportunity for an injection of hope into a world of despair. The opportunity to revision how we see ourselves as a church, a town, a global community lies waiting to be seized. Taking hold of this can be terrifying, it is always more comfortable to bring back what once was. The new is not the familiar.

The challenge I lay before all of us is this. Look for the signs of new life around us. Try to listen for God's call to experiment. Isaiah tells us of a God who says “Behold, I am doing something new”. What is the new thing God is doing here? Are we ready to try being people of abundant Life in ways that may be slightly or even extremely different than how “we have always done it”?

God calls us to resurrection. God doesn't necessarily call us to resuscitation of the old body. May God's transforming power be at work in us, both within the congregation and within Atikokan and within the global community of which we are a part.

Gord

Looking Ahead to March 30, 2008 -- 2nd Sunday of Easter

The Scripture Readings for this week are:

• From the Life of the Early Church: Acts 2:14a, 22-32
• Psalm 16 (VU p.738)
• From the Letters of the Church: 1 Corinthians 15:35-44
• From the Gospel: John 12:24-26

The Hymns for this week are:

• 409 Morning Has Broken
• 296 This is God’s Wondrous World
• 703 In the Bulb There Is a Flower
• 424 May the God of Hope Go With Us

The Sermon title for this week is Life From Dead Ground

Early Thoughts: What happens when we plant a seed? How does death and resurrection work in a organic model?

One of the models we use for explaining Easter to children is the idea of a seed or bulb being planted and growing. Of course this is in part because Easter in the Northern Hemisphere falls in the (this year very early) spring. And spring is the time when we look with excitement (if my daughters are any indication)for the emergence of grass from the snow and then the buds swelling on trees and new growth pushing out of the ground.

In this reading from John Jesus points out that a seed falling into the ground dies so that it can grow. (and obviously John is using this as foretelling the Easter story)

What grows from the seed is the same but different, as Paul tells the Corinthians. Resurrection is not the rebirth of what was. We plant seeds and tend the growth which God provides. In our community we are looking for signs of resurrection amidst lots of signs of death. What seeds and bulbs are lying in the fertile soil that is our lives? What new growth is waiting to come bursting from the dead frozen sod?

Come and join us in this Easter season as we talk about what resurrection means in this place and time.
--Gord

Dawn Breaks...

Christ is Risen!!

Christ is Risen Indeed!!!

Hallelujah!! Hallelujah!!

Blessed Easter!!