Although the secular calendar recognizes that the New Year begins on January 1st and the Church celebrates the new liturgical year on the first Sunday of Advent, those of us with children or who work in academia or in the Church School KNOW that the year really begins in September!!
The Christian Education Commission, the Pastors, the teachers, the Club 67 mentors, the God Squad mentors, the CornerStones leaders and I have been preparing for the 2010-2011 program year. A LOT is happening at SUMC this fall!
Church School begins on Sunday, September 19th. With a growing Church School, we are adding two more classes this fall so that our children are in age-appropriate learning settings with the proper student-teacher ratio. This is GOOD news, but means that we need additional teachers, not just for the Fall, but for our Winter and Spring sessions. We still have several openings for the Winter and Spring and an urgent need for two more leaders for our Pre-K/Kindergarten class and one more teacher for the 2nd &3rd grade class. You can sign up on the CE bulletin board or by emailing drelizabeth@sudbury-umc.org.
Our Club 67 group (our 6th and 7th graders) needs additional mentors. This group meets on Sunday mornings during Church School time. Leadership of this group rotates monthly and has worked well with a couple leading each month. We have only one team of mentors signed up thus far. If you are interested in exploring this chance to get to know and work with some of the most energetic and enthusiastic members of SUMC, please let me know!
Our CornerStones adult education program begins on Sunday, September 26th. We have a full slate of offerings that will challenge both mind and heart. Classes range from Healthy Eating to learning about the history of United Methodism in the United States to Pastor Joel's ever-popular Disciple I class (meeting on Monday nights beginning September 13th) - and everything in between! Please check out our CornerStones brochure for more details and information on offerings, leaders and times and let me know if you would like to sign up for a class or two!
With our Youth Coordinator on medical leave until October 1st, our God Squad mentors have continued their fabulous work with our 8th -12th graders! The full schedule for the year -along with pictures and souvenirs of the June Mission Trip to Pennslyvania - can be found on the SUMC Youth bulletin board outside my office. Offering fun, fellowship, service and faith exploration, our God Squad rocks!
The beginning of the year is a BUSY time, but our purpose is not busyness for the sake of being busy. United Methodists are called to bring both our heads and our hearts into our relationship with God. Worship and Christian Education are two sides of the same coin that over time form us into the people God calls us to be. It is important for each of us - as individuals and as parents - to take a step back from our busyness and search out the space and time for worship and Christian education so that we grow evermore into the image of Christ to which we are called.
The Staff, the Christian Education Commission and our teachers, mentors and leaders all look forward to deepening our relationship all ages of the SUMC congregation and with Jesus.
Grace and Peace,
Elizabeth
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Musing on Justice
I have been preparing for tomorrow's Children's Moment at the same time I have been doing some curriculum research and reading on deconstructing racism for an adult education class next February. The text for the Children's Moment is Micah 6: 6-8: What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God."
This is a familiar passage and lots of sermons and homilies have been preached upon it. But this time around, I am having a hard time with how 21st century Americans understand justice with the way the Scriptures understand justice - and I am particularly struggling around how we convey the difference to our children.
Americans have a mental picture of justice - the blind-folded woman holding the balanced scales. We are given to understand that justice stands above us- impartial - adding to or subtracting from each side until the scales balance. And once equilibrium is reached, the problem is solved. And we feel better.
But this NOT how the Scriptures tell us God views justice. God's justice is most definitely NOT blind: God sees the plight of the widow, the despair of the poor and the hungry, the pain of the exile and the homeless. The very first thing God's justice requires of us is that we take the blindfold off and see the dynamics of human relations for what they are; disordered, destructive and well beyond the power of fairness to fix. And once we have seen human relations for what they are, we are called not only to mitigate the damage already done; we are called to engage the powers and principalities so that we change the dynamics toward those of the Kingdom of God.
As I read through anti-racism materials, this is far easier said than done - and in all honesty, we prefer it that way. It is hard to admit that well-intentioned though we are, we are part and parcel of the unjust systems that allow some to prosper and others to barley subsist. Doing God's justice, we must LOOK at ourselves and the society of which we are a part and then having SEEN, we must CHANGE ourselves and the society in which we live. The task is daunting.
We aren't the only ones who fail to understand what God is asking of us. God's people from the very beginning fell into the trap of thinking "justice" means "just us." Cautioned by God to remember that they too had been slaves, the prophets over and over reminded the people of Israel that fairness wasn't the standard. The people were to remember the pain of what it felt to be slaves in Egypt, hungry in the desert, exiles in Babylon and not perpetrate the same upon anyone else. God's people were called then - as they are now - to change the way they lived so that there would be a place for everyone, plenty for all and so that each and every human being would be able to live out being made in the image and likeness of God.
This is pretty heavy duty stuff - and it will take us a long time to wrestle with it as adults dealing with racism in adult education. I have time and wise counsel to help me plan for that. The real question is how I am going to manage to convey this to our children in five minutes or less tomorrow morning. Come to Church tomorrow and see how it turns out.
Faithfully,
Elizabeth
This is a familiar passage and lots of sermons and homilies have been preached upon it. But this time around, I am having a hard time with how 21st century Americans understand justice with the way the Scriptures understand justice - and I am particularly struggling around how we convey the difference to our children.
Americans have a mental picture of justice - the blind-folded woman holding the balanced scales. We are given to understand that justice stands above us- impartial - adding to or subtracting from each side until the scales balance. And once equilibrium is reached, the problem is solved. And we feel better.
But this NOT how the Scriptures tell us God views justice. God's justice is most definitely NOT blind: God sees the plight of the widow, the despair of the poor and the hungry, the pain of the exile and the homeless. The very first thing God's justice requires of us is that we take the blindfold off and see the dynamics of human relations for what they are; disordered, destructive and well beyond the power of fairness to fix. And once we have seen human relations for what they are, we are called not only to mitigate the damage already done; we are called to engage the powers and principalities so that we change the dynamics toward those of the Kingdom of God.
As I read through anti-racism materials, this is far easier said than done - and in all honesty, we prefer it that way. It is hard to admit that well-intentioned though we are, we are part and parcel of the unjust systems that allow some to prosper and others to barley subsist. Doing God's justice, we must LOOK at ourselves and the society of which we are a part and then having SEEN, we must CHANGE ourselves and the society in which we live. The task is daunting.
We aren't the only ones who fail to understand what God is asking of us. God's people from the very beginning fell into the trap of thinking "justice" means "just us." Cautioned by God to remember that they too had been slaves, the prophets over and over reminded the people of Israel that fairness wasn't the standard. The people were to remember the pain of what it felt to be slaves in Egypt, hungry in the desert, exiles in Babylon and not perpetrate the same upon anyone else. God's people were called then - as they are now - to change the way they lived so that there would be a place for everyone, plenty for all and so that each and every human being would be able to live out being made in the image and likeness of God.
This is pretty heavy duty stuff - and it will take us a long time to wrestle with it as adults dealing with racism in adult education. I have time and wise counsel to help me plan for that. The real question is how I am going to manage to convey this to our children in five minutes or less tomorrow morning. Come to Church tomorrow and see how it turns out.
Faithfully,
Elizabeth
Sunday, August 1, 2010
When Morning Guilds the Skies . . .
There is a hymn that begins, "When morning guilds the skies, my heart awaking cries, may Jesus Christ be praised!" (UMH #185). As I drove to SUMC this morning, I found myself singing that hymn.
It takes me about 35 minutes to head down 27 from my home to the Church. Most mornings when I come to work, I have just fed children and cleaned up the kitchen, gathered up my work materials and dashed into the car worried about traffice and if I have time to stop for coffee. But this Sunday was a bit different. I am on the road early on Sunday morning - I usually am in the car by 6:30 or so- and the morning was cool with no humidity and the promise of a bright blue sky. I found myself noticing just how green and lush the trees were (even though the lawns are in pretty bad shape), how bountifully abundant everything seemed in the increasing light. And suddenly I found myself singing and praising our Creator God.
We have just spent a week in Vacation Bible School celebrating the awesome nature of God's creation - from supernovas to "this fragile Earth, our island home" (Book of Common Prayer). It was a fun and busy week and I spent most of my time anticipating what needed to be done next to make things go smoothly for our children and volunteers. I didn't do much praising, never mind NOTICING just how awesome the creation really is!
My drive in this morning was a wake up call of sorts - a chance to simply BE in the presence of all that God has made and marvel at it. I wonder how many of you (particularly the Moms out there) are like me. There is just SO much to be done each day and not enough time to do it. I am never actually IN the moment that is happening right now; I am always anticipating, planning and making the next moment happen.
But that isn't what we are called to as followers of Jesus. We are taught to pray, "Give us THIS day our daily bread," to be like the lilies of the field "neither toiling nor spinning." Rather we are to relish, celebrate and reflect the goodness and the glory of God at all times.
The Bhuddist monk Pema Chodron writes, "This moment is the perfect teacher." I was reminded of that this morning as I was driving to work. Present in the moment, I was taught-again- to notice, to give thanks, to praise God for all that IS in the moment which is happening RIGHT NOW.
Children are often the best at helping us to practice this moment being the perfect teacher. Particularly during the summer months, they notice more than we do the way the light plays through the leaves of the trees, how ants can carry more than their body weight, the juiciness of a fresh, ripe berry and the delight of being in water. They live in the NOW and their joy in it can help us to remember that us grown-ups were also created to experience the delight of the creation, to know ourselves as part of it and to live in relationship with the One who caused it to be.
I hope your summertime includes lots of moments in the RIGHT NOWwith children!
Grace and Peace,
Elizabeth
It takes me about 35 minutes to head down 27 from my home to the Church. Most mornings when I come to work, I have just fed children and cleaned up the kitchen, gathered up my work materials and dashed into the car worried about traffice and if I have time to stop for coffee. But this Sunday was a bit different. I am on the road early on Sunday morning - I usually am in the car by 6:30 or so- and the morning was cool with no humidity and the promise of a bright blue sky. I found myself noticing just how green and lush the trees were (even though the lawns are in pretty bad shape), how bountifully abundant everything seemed in the increasing light. And suddenly I found myself singing and praising our Creator God.
We have just spent a week in Vacation Bible School celebrating the awesome nature of God's creation - from supernovas to "this fragile Earth, our island home" (Book of Common Prayer). It was a fun and busy week and I spent most of my time anticipating what needed to be done next to make things go smoothly for our children and volunteers. I didn't do much praising, never mind NOTICING just how awesome the creation really is!
My drive in this morning was a wake up call of sorts - a chance to simply BE in the presence of all that God has made and marvel at it. I wonder how many of you (particularly the Moms out there) are like me. There is just SO much to be done each day and not enough time to do it. I am never actually IN the moment that is happening right now; I am always anticipating, planning and making the next moment happen.
But that isn't what we are called to as followers of Jesus. We are taught to pray, "Give us THIS day our daily bread," to be like the lilies of the field "neither toiling nor spinning." Rather we are to relish, celebrate and reflect the goodness and the glory of God at all times.
The Bhuddist monk Pema Chodron writes, "This moment is the perfect teacher." I was reminded of that this morning as I was driving to work. Present in the moment, I was taught-again- to notice, to give thanks, to praise God for all that IS in the moment which is happening RIGHT NOW.
Children are often the best at helping us to practice this moment being the perfect teacher. Particularly during the summer months, they notice more than we do the way the light plays through the leaves of the trees, how ants can carry more than their body weight, the juiciness of a fresh, ripe berry and the delight of being in water. They live in the NOW and their joy in it can help us to remember that us grown-ups were also created to experience the delight of the creation, to know ourselves as part of it and to live in relationship with the One who caused it to be.
I hope your summertime includes lots of moments in the RIGHT NOWwith children!
Grace and Peace,
Elizabeth
Monday, July 26, 2010
Vacation Bible School
The Praiseship Galatic Blast lifted off from Sudbury United Methodist Church at 9:00 AM EST this morning. It is a much anticipated and long-prepared for mission! We began our planning back in January. After worship yesterday, our enthsiastic Mission Command Staff and I spent several hours turning our Chapel and Church School space into the flight deck of the Galactic Praise and outer space.
Our first day went well - the usual hitches; everything took a bit longer than we thought on the first day. We had one bumped lip on the playground and one child in the wrong grade. But we sang, prayed and made crafts together and explored the wonder of our Creator God as we heard the story of the Creation.
Vacation Bible School holds such an important place in my own faith journey. My Nana Windsor ran the three-town Vacation Bible School in her tiny corner of Vermont. From the time I was in the third grade until I graduated from high school, I taught the kindergarten class with my Nana. I did not know it at the time, but my vocation was being formed in those summers. VBS programming was no where near as neatly packaged and glitzy - we developed our own curriculm from the Bible and our projects consisted of mostly papertowel rolls and clothespins, but somehow, the love of God I experienced there found its way into my soul and sharing the biblical story of God's love for God's people became my life's passion and work.
It is hard when we sit down with children - most of whom are unknown to us -for a week of exploring together. As teachers and leaders we wonder just how successfully we will convey the story, what the children will learn and what they will remember. We feel RESPONSIBLE for how well it goes. And we should take our responsibility as teachers of the faith seriously, but our job is only to plant the seeds. God is responsible for the harvest - and we may NEVER know how the faith stories of those we meet this week will turn out.
But because story is such an important means of teaching and learning for me, I want to share one with you of my VBS experience growing-up with my Nana. There was a year when our theme was the Book of Daniel. We had this one little girl in our group who was an absolute TERROR. She was loud, she was uncooperative, she was downright rude in places. She interupted, wouldn't sit till and was disrepectful. We all wondered why she was there and how she could possilby get anything out of the experience.
The biggest story of the week was the tale of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (Daniel Chapter 3) who were thrown into the fiery furnace by King Nebuchadnezzar. At our end of the week performance for the parents, we asked the children to tell us the names of these men. And at the top of her lungs, our TERROR shouted out,"Shadrach, Bushwack and Amigo." Well, it got a laugh from the parents, but my Nana and I were despondent figuring we had done our job badly.
Many years went by. My Nana died and I officiated at her funeral. As I was greeting folks after the service, a well-groomed woman with three children came up to me. I didn't recognize her as family and she seemed young to be a friend of my Nana's, but she smiled and said, "I am sure you won't remember me, but I was in your VBS class many years ago and it changed my life. I fell in love with God. I went to seminary and became a UCC Pastor and my children are being raised in the Church. I never got the chance to thank your grandmother or you." I replied that I was so glad and would she please tell me her name. She laughed, "My name won't mean anything to you, but do 'Shadrach, Bushwack and Amigo' give you a clue? We dissolved into laughter as we hugged each other. And I could feel my Nana smiling down from the heavenly choir.
You just never know what will happen to the seeds you plant!!!
Faithfully,
Elizabeth
Our first day went well - the usual hitches; everything took a bit longer than we thought on the first day. We had one bumped lip on the playground and one child in the wrong grade. But we sang, prayed and made crafts together and explored the wonder of our Creator God as we heard the story of the Creation.
Vacation Bible School holds such an important place in my own faith journey. My Nana Windsor ran the three-town Vacation Bible School in her tiny corner of Vermont. From the time I was in the third grade until I graduated from high school, I taught the kindergarten class with my Nana. I did not know it at the time, but my vocation was being formed in those summers. VBS programming was no where near as neatly packaged and glitzy - we developed our own curriculm from the Bible and our projects consisted of mostly papertowel rolls and clothespins, but somehow, the love of God I experienced there found its way into my soul and sharing the biblical story of God's love for God's people became my life's passion and work.
It is hard when we sit down with children - most of whom are unknown to us -for a week of exploring together. As teachers and leaders we wonder just how successfully we will convey the story, what the children will learn and what they will remember. We feel RESPONSIBLE for how well it goes. And we should take our responsibility as teachers of the faith seriously, but our job is only to plant the seeds. God is responsible for the harvest - and we may NEVER know how the faith stories of those we meet this week will turn out.
But because story is such an important means of teaching and learning for me, I want to share one with you of my VBS experience growing-up with my Nana. There was a year when our theme was the Book of Daniel. We had this one little girl in our group who was an absolute TERROR. She was loud, she was uncooperative, she was downright rude in places. She interupted, wouldn't sit till and was disrepectful. We all wondered why she was there and how she could possilby get anything out of the experience.
The biggest story of the week was the tale of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego (Daniel Chapter 3) who were thrown into the fiery furnace by King Nebuchadnezzar. At our end of the week performance for the parents, we asked the children to tell us the names of these men. And at the top of her lungs, our TERROR shouted out,"Shadrach, Bushwack and Amigo." Well, it got a laugh from the parents, but my Nana and I were despondent figuring we had done our job badly.
Many years went by. My Nana died and I officiated at her funeral. As I was greeting folks after the service, a well-groomed woman with three children came up to me. I didn't recognize her as family and she seemed young to be a friend of my Nana's, but she smiled and said, "I am sure you won't remember me, but I was in your VBS class many years ago and it changed my life. I fell in love with God. I went to seminary and became a UCC Pastor and my children are being raised in the Church. I never got the chance to thank your grandmother or you." I replied that I was so glad and would she please tell me her name. She laughed, "My name won't mean anything to you, but do 'Shadrach, Bushwack and Amigo' give you a clue? We dissolved into laughter as we hugged each other. And I could feel my Nana smiling down from the heavenly choir.
You just never know what will happen to the seeds you plant!!!
Faithfully,
Elizabeth
Sunday, June 13, 2010
Bringing Our Gifts to the Altar
For me, the highlight of this morning's " Christian Education Sunday" was the children leading us in song. Perhaps because some of my earliest Church memories are singing with the choir (I sang in the Choir from the time I was in the 1st grade until I started doing my professional work in the Church which doesn't leave me free to sing with the Choir on Sunday mornings!), children's voices lifted in praise goes right to the core of my being.
Singing is an important part of worship - especially for Methodists. The Wesley brothers wrote over 2,000 hymns; singing to God and of God is our heritage. But standing up front and leading songs of praise as our children did this morning is NOT about performing. When anyone leads worship through prayer, praise, song or preaching, they bring the gift of themselves to the altar. When we offer ourselves and whatever gifts and talents we have, we give our gratitude to the God who made us and who delights in us.
This is an important lesson for all of us to learn. We live in a society that constantly tells us we can never be perfect enough. We feel ourselves being constantly judged. Worship is a TOTALLY different way of being. God asks only that we bring joyful hearts and the intention to offer ourselves to praise God and to be in service to each other in worship leadership. Children are some of the best teachers we have when it comes to learning what it is to be joyful in God's presence.We can be fidgety, not know the words, and forget what we are supposed to be doing. God isn't keeping track. But God IS smiling at our presence, clapping along with our joy and finding us pleasing simply because we are loving God back.
It is a lesson that cannot be learned too young. And a lesson about which we are never to old to be reminded!
Faithfully,
Elizabeth
Singing is an important part of worship - especially for Methodists. The Wesley brothers wrote over 2,000 hymns; singing to God and of God is our heritage. But standing up front and leading songs of praise as our children did this morning is NOT about performing. When anyone leads worship through prayer, praise, song or preaching, they bring the gift of themselves to the altar. When we offer ourselves and whatever gifts and talents we have, we give our gratitude to the God who made us and who delights in us.
This is an important lesson for all of us to learn. We live in a society that constantly tells us we can never be perfect enough. We feel ourselves being constantly judged. Worship is a TOTALLY different way of being. God asks only that we bring joyful hearts and the intention to offer ourselves to praise God and to be in service to each other in worship leadership. Children are some of the best teachers we have when it comes to learning what it is to be joyful in God's presence.We can be fidgety, not know the words, and forget what we are supposed to be doing. God isn't keeping track. But God IS smiling at our presence, clapping along with our joy and finding us pleasing simply because we are loving God back.
It is a lesson that cannot be learned too young. And a lesson about which we are never to old to be reminded!
Faithfully,
Elizabeth
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Ordinary Time
The Season After Pentecost which begins after Trinity Sunday (today) is sometimes referred to as "ordinary time." It is "ordinary" because the weeks that follow are not associated with a specific liturgical season such as Lent or Epiphany. There are no over-arching themes for these weeks of the Church's year which makes them "ordinary." The liturgical color for the Season After Pentecost is green - and because this season coincides with Spring and Summer in our hemisphere, it has often been connected to growth in the Christian cycle. It is also a long season, lasting until Advent begins again.
Lessons each Sunday focus our attention on our relationship with God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and one another, and on the Church and its mission. As the season often coincides with our vacations, it is also a season where we can reflect on the gift of time God gives to each human life.
Time is something we pretend we are in control of in the post-industrial West. We think about "managing our time," "making good use of our time" and "not wasting time." We are busy people, families and communities. But as much as we feel we are in control of time, time still remains God's, not ours.
Jeremy Taylor, an early anglican divine wrote:
"There is too little time to purchase great wealth, to satisfy the pride of a vain-glorious fool, to trample upon all the enemies of our just or unjust interests; but for the obtaining of virtue, for the purchase of sobriety and modesty, for the acts of religion, God gave us time sufficient."
- Jeremy Taylor The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living (1650)
"Ordinary time" is the perfect time for us to reflect both on how we use time and how we can simply be in time. We are so busy most of the year pretending we control time that we forget that we have allowed time to control us. The slower pace of the summer months gives us times of refreshment - times to "be" rather than "do." I love to just sit on the beach and watch the waves roll in and out in their timeless fashion. As the days lengthen, I find myself more drawn to watching the sunrise or the sunset, to simply sitting still and breathing. I don't have to look for God the way I do when I am flying from task to task, but sitting still and letting the ancient rythyms of the creation envelop me, God finds me. I am easily in touch with the incarnate Jesus who fills my soul without my searching for him. All I have to do is stop managing time and, instead, be in time.
So - I invite you to join me in ordinary time, doing ordinary things and finding the rythym of the holy so close that all we need to do to find it is breathe.
Faithfully,
Elizabeth
Lessons each Sunday focus our attention on our relationship with God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit and one another, and on the Church and its mission. As the season often coincides with our vacations, it is also a season where we can reflect on the gift of time God gives to each human life.
Time is something we pretend we are in control of in the post-industrial West. We think about "managing our time," "making good use of our time" and "not wasting time." We are busy people, families and communities. But as much as we feel we are in control of time, time still remains God's, not ours.
Jeremy Taylor, an early anglican divine wrote:
"There is too little time to purchase great wealth, to satisfy the pride of a vain-glorious fool, to trample upon all the enemies of our just or unjust interests; but for the obtaining of virtue, for the purchase of sobriety and modesty, for the acts of religion, God gave us time sufficient."
- Jeremy Taylor The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living (1650)
"Ordinary time" is the perfect time for us to reflect both on how we use time and how we can simply be in time. We are so busy most of the year pretending we control time that we forget that we have allowed time to control us. The slower pace of the summer months gives us times of refreshment - times to "be" rather than "do." I love to just sit on the beach and watch the waves roll in and out in their timeless fashion. As the days lengthen, I find myself more drawn to watching the sunrise or the sunset, to simply sitting still and breathing. I don't have to look for God the way I do when I am flying from task to task, but sitting still and letting the ancient rythyms of the creation envelop me, God finds me. I am easily in touch with the incarnate Jesus who fills my soul without my searching for him. All I have to do is stop managing time and, instead, be in time.
So - I invite you to join me in ordinary time, doing ordinary things and finding the rythym of the holy so close that all we need to do to find it is breathe.
Faithfully,
Elizabeth
Saturday, May 22, 2010
Hooray! it's Pentecost
When we think of the major Christian festivals, Christmas and Easter are at the top of the list. We tend to forget about Pentecost which is one of the three most important celebrations of the Christian Church - we wouldn't be a Church without it!
We celebrate Pentecost on Sunday, May 11th this year (the date always changes because it is fifty days after Easter)On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descends upon the disciples, giving them the power to preach, teach, heal, serve and love in Jesus' name. The Holy Spirit's presence within us and among us is how we are empowered to do the same.
The Holy Spirit can be hard to explain to young children. It is a more an intangible "thing" than a concrete object. The Holy Spirit is like the wind - we can't see wind, we can only see the leaves it blows. The Holy Spirit is like the wind. We can't see it, but we can see what it does. When we see someon caring for another person, cleaning up litter in the park or sharing a kind word, that is when we see the Holy Spirit in action.
"Spirit Bubbles" are a Pentecost tradition in my house. On the Day of Pentecost, when we celebrate the power of the Holy Spirit among us, my children and I head outside after Church with our bubbles and we blow them. As the bubbles rise on the wind, we offer up our prayers for each other and those we are worried about. We shout out our thanksgivings and laugh together. And then we finish with this prayer:
I am an Alleluia!
I am a Wonder!
The gifts of your Spirit, O God, make me so!
With these gifts, I can live your life, Jesus.
I can be fully alive!
Amen!
So this Pentecost, I invite you to share in our tradition. Head outside with your bubbles and shout your praise to God together! And be sure to wear red to Church on Sunday! Red is the color of the tongues of fire that came upon the disciples as the Holy Spirit descended on them and it is a color of passion in the Church. So wear your red to Church and we will be a living, breathing representation of the Spirit!
Happy Pentecost!
Faithfully,
Elizabeth
We celebrate Pentecost on Sunday, May 11th this year (the date always changes because it is fifty days after Easter)On Pentecost, the Holy Spirit descends upon the disciples, giving them the power to preach, teach, heal, serve and love in Jesus' name. The Holy Spirit's presence within us and among us is how we are empowered to do the same.
The Holy Spirit can be hard to explain to young children. It is a more an intangible "thing" than a concrete object. The Holy Spirit is like the wind - we can't see wind, we can only see the leaves it blows. The Holy Spirit is like the wind. We can't see it, but we can see what it does. When we see someon caring for another person, cleaning up litter in the park or sharing a kind word, that is when we see the Holy Spirit in action.
"Spirit Bubbles" are a Pentecost tradition in my house. On the Day of Pentecost, when we celebrate the power of the Holy Spirit among us, my children and I head outside after Church with our bubbles and we blow them. As the bubbles rise on the wind, we offer up our prayers for each other and those we are worried about. We shout out our thanksgivings and laugh together. And then we finish with this prayer:
I am an Alleluia!
I am a Wonder!
The gifts of your Spirit, O God, make me so!
With these gifts, I can live your life, Jesus.
I can be fully alive!
Amen!
So this Pentecost, I invite you to share in our tradition. Head outside with your bubbles and shout your praise to God together! And be sure to wear red to Church on Sunday! Red is the color of the tongues of fire that came upon the disciples as the Holy Spirit descended on them and it is a color of passion in the Church. So wear your red to Church and we will be a living, breathing representation of the Spirit!
Happy Pentecost!
Faithfully,
Elizabeth
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