April 26 - Anniversary Sunday

Link to YouTube for Anniversary Worship Service

Deborah Laforet Luke 24:13-35

April 26, 2020

“Just Like Those Disciples”

This is our seventh Sunday online.  How do we come to know Jesus?  It feels a little more difficult when we’re not gathering in community, when we’re not able to break bread together, share in a cup of coffee, celebrate together our 64th anniversary.

We know that the church is not a building, but this anniversary Sunday is celebrating the origins of St. Paul’s, its building, and the ministry inside and outside that building, that physical space at 454 Rebecca Street.  

This year, we celebrate in a different way.  We celebrate the community that is St. Paul’s, whether it be those who come every Sunday, those that are connected through other events that occur at St. Paul’s, through family members, through our wider church connections and community connections, and all those who made St. Paul’s what it is today, founding members, past minsters, the many who aren’t with us anymore.  This anniversary we celebrate all that has been, all that is, and all that is to come and we will find Christ in that.  

Like those two disciples on the road to Emmaus, we have so much to learn from the stranger.  As we learn to be a neighbour to strangers with the Neighbour Care Network at Kerr Street Mission, as we learn about mental health and strive to raise awareness in partnership with community partners, as we learn what it means to be an Affirming Church and how to love someone who is struggling to find their identity and be accepted for who they are,  we will find Christ.  

Just like those disciples on the road to Emmaus, we may think Christ is gone, we may feel that hope is gone, we may wonder if things will ever be the same, but then our eyes will be opened.  Our eyes will be opened by the kind voice we hear over the phone, by the beauty of a sunset or an emerging flower, by the kind words and images left on windows of homes or on front yards and trails, by bells ringing all over Canada in solidarity, by a friendly greeting on a walk.  Stranger or friend, Christ is there.  Christ is risen!  It’s true!

Just like those disciples on the road to Emmaus, our hearts will burn inside us.  When we hear truth spoken to us, when we recognize an injustice, when we receive comfort when we are hurting, when we are touched by beauty, when we break bread as a community, we will know Christ is not gone.  Christ has appeared, not just to Simon, not just to Mary Magdalene or the disciples locked in a room, and not just to those two walking to Emmaus.  Christ appears in every age, in every place, to every one.  There have been many Christ appearances at St. Paul’s for the past 64 years, and they will continue for the next 64 years.  

May your eyes be opened.  May your hearts burn within you.  May you see, hear, taste, smell, and feel that Christ is risen.  It’s true.   Thanks be to God and Hallelujah!  Amen.

Deborah Laforet