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By Michael Wilson Pastoral Letters April 21, 2023

 

 

 

Watch this week’s service on YouTube by clicking: April 23 Worship Service Video

 

Join us for worship on Sundays at 10:00

 

  • Please join us after the service in the Van Roon Community Hall for HeBrews Café, refreshments and fellowship after worship.

 

  • Michael Wilson’s book “A Pastoral Pandemic: Remaining Connected in a Time of Disconnection” is now available in store and online through CommonWord Bookstore (Canadian Mennonite University). “A Pastoral Pandemic” is a collection of letters chronicling the two years Charleswood United Church suspended in-person worship. For more information visit: https://www.commonword.ca/go/3408. 

 

 

 

Dear Friends

Welcome to worship for Sunday, April 23, 2023.

There is going to be a white-out on the streets of Winnipeg tomorrow. It’s not going to be like the white-out that Brandon received this week when a Colorado low passed through town. The white-out in Winnipeg tomorrow is the block party, viewing party on the streets adjacent to the arena as the Jets play their first home play-off game.

If you like hockey. If you like crowds. If you like the party atmosphere of everyone around you wearing the same color clothes and cheering for the same team then the white-out may be the place for you. I won’t be there but to each their own. That may just be my age speaking. I will say this though, there is a need being met in the white-out. A need for a common experience. A need to be part of a larger community. A need to be part of something bigger than yourself. White-outs meet a need for connection and inter-action all of which is great.

The problem is that when the Jets season is over and there are no more white-outs to attend, those needs remain and how will they be met.

I think that being a follower of Jesus must have been a real rush. There were always crowds wherever he went. Amazing things, sometimes inexplicable things, happened when he was around. The Bible describes crowds so tightly packed Jesus couldn’t move through them. Crowds so large he had to get on a boat off-shore to speak to them. Crowds that numbered in the thousands given the bread and fish handed out. The need to be part of something greater than yourself was met in those crowds.

And then it was over.

Two travellers who were part of those crowds left Jerusalem on the road to Emmaus. It was the same day that some women of their group had said that they had gone to the tomb and found the body was gone. They had had a vision of an angel who told them they were wasting their time looking for the living among the dead. But for these two travellers it wasn’t enough. Their needs were not going to be met by rumours, memories, and wishful thinking. As is usually the case with large crowds, white-outs and otherwise, the end is almost always disappointing.

But not this time. By the end of that day they were returning to Jerusalem to find the others they had left behind. They now knew that is was true, He was risen. And when given the opportunity to say why they believed this, how it was that their needs were met, they said two things. They said that that their hearts burned within them while Jesus taught. And that he was made known to them in the breaking of the bread. Or to put it another way, word and sacrament. Their needs for connection, belonging, healing, community, and a common experience were met by word and sacrament.

On the streets of Winnipeg tomorrow, a momentary victory will be celebrated. At church on Sunday an eternal victory will continue to be experienced.

 

 

Grace and peace,

Michael

 

 

 

 

 

  • The reading for this week’s service can be found here: Luke 24:13-35

 

  • Did you know you can support this ministry by e-transfer, automatic withdrawal (PAR), and gifted securities, in addition to weekly or monthly cheques? For Offering Information please visit: https://charleswoodunited.org/support/  Thank you for your generous support.

 

  • For news and events please have a look at Life & Work on our website: Life and Work

 

  • For more information on earthquake relief efforts in Turkey and Syria please visit any of the following:

 

Mennonite Central Committee: MCC Earthquake Relief.

The Canadian Red Cross page link: Canadian Red Cross Earthquake Appeal.

The United Church Response link: UCC Earthquake Relief

Michael Wilson / About Author
Michael’s involvement in the wider church has included ministry with children and youth, membership on the National Division of World Outreach, supervision of campus ministry, and the Ten Days for Global Justice National Committee. He has been blessed by the opportunity to represent the United Church of Canada in the Bahamas, Cuba, and Africa on different occasions. Michael has taught at the University of Winnipeg – Faculty of Theology and is past President of the Conference of Manitoba and North Western Ontario.
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