Join us this Sunday for Communion.  Sunday School will be held as well. 

Here are a few thoughts from Rev. Marlene about Sunday’s reflection. 

“Look, you serve your own interests on your fast day, and oppress all your workers” Isaiah 58:3

This week’s lectionary brings us into an interesting discussion on fasting, which has implications for our attitudes toward the sacraments in general. What does fasting, which is pleasing to God, look like?

The prophet appears to be insisting that inward religion must accompany outward observance. It reminds me that we must examine ourselves, look deeply into our own hearts, minds and relationships before taking the sacraments such as communion.

There is a definite connection being drawn between our relationships and care toward others; and our observance of worship. The “new” worship, which finds favour with God, is a worship which, as Walter Brueggemann suggests, is of the most “elemental kind.” In Journey to the Common Good, he says that, “ The new worship looks advantage and disadvantage square in the face, and urges economic gestures that bind haves and have-nots together.”

1 John 4 tells us that love of God is love of neighbour. Godly worship happens in practice, not in abstract thought or in piety, but in the reality of our relationships. That is where our love of God and worship blossom and find life.