This Week@Wesley

September 15, 2017

Hello Everyone,

Here is the list of the things to remember this Week@Wesley.

1.   This Sunday marks the beginning of Sunday School!

2.   This Sunday is the last collection day for school supplies for St. Columba House. Please bring your donations to church with you on Sunday. Suggested Items: scotch tape, scissors, glue sticks, pencils, pencil cases, lunch bags, school bags, Hilroy copy books, stapler, markers, dictionaries (French or English), Chapters gift cards, math sets, calculators, duo tangs, pocket folders.

3.   Official Board has a one item meeting regarding the Refugee Language Program, on Monday, September 18th at 7:30 p.m. in Wesley Hall (or the Parlour if the hall is not available).

You will note the new format for my weekly message. Some folk don’t always have the time to read my message each week and do not always see the information they need to be ready for church. So after numerous suggestions I am beginning with the list of what you need to know so that everyone can check it at a glance. I appreciate the ongoing input to help make This Week@Wesley as helpful a resource as possible. For those of you who read the message faithfully each week from beginning to end, do not worry, you will still get my musings it will just be in a different order.

So I have a confession to make. I watch far too much television and now that we have subscribed to Netflix, my addiction is worse! While the back to school and work of post vacation time is busier for me than the summer, as a part-time worker, I do still have some time on my hands. Couple that with a partner who works late a lot in September, I find myself relying on Netflix as company for a lot of my spare time. This year, I have been rewatching Downton Abbey - that lovely Edwardian period piece of British television that enamoured so many of us.  

I have watched the series at least twice before, but I do not tire of it. When thinking of why there are those shows, movies and even books that we can revisit over and over again, I think the common factor is story. We all love a good story, true or imagined. It also comes down to character; we all love interesting and complex characters. In the case of Downton you have the added strength of a view into the lives of the ‘upstairs’ and ‘downstairs’ that most of us have no idea about.

The idea of revisiting a great story also applies to reading the scriptures. The Bible is full of great stories, some of them epic, and we return to them for the same reasons we revisit our favourite books, movies and television programs.  But there is one more factor to the Bible stories that does not exist in other stories. It is, of course, the  way in which the Biblical story reminds us of God’s love for us now and throughout history. It is also they way in which we are reminded that God’s ways do not always match the ways of humanity. So, we reread the Bible to remember that we need to re-evaluate who, whose and how we are in light of the love of God for us and for the world.

This week@Wesley we will revisit a part of the epic story of the Exodus of the Israelite people as they cross the Red Sea. We know this story well but, I will be exploring something new in my sermon this week.

I hope to see you all on Sunday.

Heather