O God of peace, you have taught us that in returning and rest we shall be saved, in quietness and confidence shall be our strength: By the might of your Spirit lift us, we pray, to your presence, where we may be still and know that you are God; through Jesus Christ our Lord, who with you and the Holy Spirit lives and reigns, one God, for ever and ever. Amen. (From A Public Service of Healing, The Book of Occasional Services, p. 166)
The words of this prayer are appropriate ones as we move toward the ‘unofficial’ beginning of summer, the Memorial Day Weekend. There’s no shortage of wisdom and beauty in this prayer just as there’s no shortage of beauty in the New England spring and summer.
We are winding down another ‘program’ year at St. Luke’s. Choir will take a summer hiatus soon. The Sunday School WoRM program will take a break (though Summer Celebration is just getting into full swing!). On June 28th we’ll begin our Summer schedule of a single Sunday service beginning at 9 a.m. It sure seems that the ‘busyness’ of activity will wind down. In some ways, it seems to me, that we then will be free to engage in some of the most important ‘business’ that God gives us.
One of the main ‘jobs’ we have in ‘striving to be a community of faith where people come to know, love and follow Jesus Christ’ is to pay attention to the formation of our community.
The fact is that deep, sustaining relationships require investment—investment of time, vulnerability, compassion and sacrifice. My hope and prayer for us as we enter a slower paced season is that we will take the opportunity for joint worship to deepen the bonds of affection, which form our community. I hope and pray that we’ll make new friends and keep the old. I hope and pray that we’ll find out things about one another and the power and call of God that we never knew we never knew. I hope and pray we’ll find and take the invitation to return and rest and find new strength for call into God’s mission and ministry in the quietness of God’s presence in our worship, in one another and in our world.
Remember, we cannot give to the world that which we do not possess. The fruit of our Sabbath times are promised to be ‘the Peace of God which passes all understanding.’ May that peace be yours and may you all share it freely
