Dear friends, I am excited to meet with you on Sunday, September 3rd, for the reopening of the doors of our church following the departure of Stéphane and Cindy and the summer break.
This reopening will take – exceptionally – the form of a breakfast gathering that will enable us to meet and get to know each other.
Services will resume on September 10th.
If I were told that the world was ending tomorrow, I would go and plant an apple tree,” the reformer Martin Luther is said to have said. A sentence that suggests the world seems to be ending, yet there remains room for a decision. A decision that seems foolish, futile in the eyes of the world: why bother planting a tree whose fruits we won’t see, in a world that’s coming to an end? Why bother living when death is inevitable? And yet, everything begins.
In fact, if we celebrate our worship on Sunday, it’s in reference to Easter: a way of saying that what’s important is that everything begins. On Easter Sunday, everything begins: something else happens. Another reality has entered this world, the Kingdom of God has drawn near, a breach has opened against everything that tells us “What’s the point?”, against everything that shrinks us into ourselves.
It’s about being alive, alive with a different life. A life different from the ordinary logic. In the logic of the world, to feel alive, one must have, even gorge on, everything – food, possessions, knowledge, and especially experiences, and multiple trappings that make us feel like we are something. The motto is “enjoy.” Enjoy life as long as it lasts, perhaps to forget that it won’t last. This isn’t the logic of the Kingdom of God.
To be alive in the Kingdom of God is to allow a space to be hollowed out within oneself for something else to come, to listen. This hollow, this gap, isn’t within our control or even our will. “Alive” means open, available. “Alive” designates that part of us where what isn’t present resides, and yet makes us live.
That’s what resurrection is. It’s nothing more than a new life nesting within us. It’s not a matter of will. It’s a gift. We are called to live, resurrected as well, alive with a true life, already citizens of that other world whose signs we scrutinize, by loving God, by loving our neighbor, by being resurrected, by being alive, by being worthy, deeply and persistently.
May this year that begins enable us to be alive, on Sundays during worship and all the other days, with this hope firmly embedded in us, driving us to plant apple trees!
Pascale Renaud-Grosbras
Events…
Sunday, September 3rd at 11 a.m
Meeting and exchange over breakfast between the community and Pastor Pascale Renaud-Grosbras
Sunday, September 10th at 11 a.m
Resumption of services, celebration led by Pastor Pascale Renaud-Grosbras
Exceptionally, Communion will be celebrated on the second Sunday of this month.
Sunday, September 17th at 11 a.m
Back-to-school service with the restart of Sunday school
The service will be followed by a buffet so that we can extend this moment of exchange and friendship.
Sunday School and Catechism will resume on Sunday, September 17th.
Your child can join either the Eveil biblique (4 to 6/7 years old) or the Ecole biblique (up to 10/11 years old). An email will be sent to you soon with registration forms and the schedule.
As is the case every year for catechism, it will take several weeks for the timetables to be known.
