THIS SUNDAY: The Community of Pilgrims Presbyterian Fellowship, Sunday, Aug. 28, 2022, Twelfth Sunday After Pentecost. On Zoom. Contact me if you need a Zoom link. If you have any questions, or are interested in a conversation, contact Pastor Brett Webb-Mitchell (919) 444-9111; brettwebbmitchell@gmail.com and visit www.communityofpilgrims.com.
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Dear Community of Pilgrims,
As I’ve recounted to many people when asked when I start preparing a sermon, I usually begin on Monday, reading the upcoming Revised Common Lectionary readings for the following Sunday. Then, for the rest of the week, the verses keep percolating, coming to my attention in prayers, or when paddling, running, doing an errand, cooking dinner, or as I am about to doze off to sleep at night. Some weeks in reading Scripture and preparing a sermon are easier than others.
This week was easier than most! I met Scriptures that spoke to the very context of both congregations I serve, as well as referencing Scripture that was the basis for my book, Unexpected Guests at God’s Banquet. The first set of verses that spoke to me was from Hebrews 13:1, 2: “Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.” Over the years that we have been together as a Community of Pilgrims, I have witnessed all of you sharing hospitality with strangers, and the joy of serving others, letting your love be shown to others, and in kind, mutual love coming to us as well. Thank you for that gift.
The Gospel reading this week encourages such hospitality, as Jesus challenges the conventional seating pattern at a wedding feast in those days (Luke 14:1, 7-14). Being in conversation with Pharisees, the protocol in those days was to seat a Pharisee at a place of honor, though there may be others even more distinguished who may have been invited, and thus the Pharisee would have to be moved, causing much confusion. Instead, Jesus suggests a radical change in the etiquette of a wedding dinner: sit at the lowest place, “so that when your host comes, he may say to you, ‘Friend, move up higher’; then you will be honored in the presence of all who sit at the table with you. For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted’” (vv. 8-11). When reading this passage I was reminded of the book by Simon Sinek, Leaders Eat Last. Sinek writes about his time in watching people who work in institutions, from corporations to military commands, and notes the following: “Leadership is not about being in charge. Leadership is about taking care of those in our charge.” This is why leaders eat last at a buffet or a wedding feast: because they are looking out, first and foremost, for those in their charge and care. That is why, in sharing Holy Communion, I will always take the cup last: to be sure that everyone else is fed. Join us this Sunday as we talk about mutual love, hospitality, and humility, following the examples set by Jesus, the Pilgrim God.
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The Community of Pilgrims will celebrate our five-year anniversary on Sunday, Sept. 18, 2022! The tentative plan, and our hope, is to meet at Rise Church on that day, in person for those in Portland, while also with those who are living in other parts of the country via Zoom. After all, you are all the Community of Pilgrims. Please mark this in your calendars. More details will be coming. This is a big anniversary for the Community of Pilgrims, and we look forward to celebrating it with one another, and with the world around us as we continue to serve and love God and serve and love neighbor in creative and meaningful ways. We look forward to announcing the establishment of an endowment to continue the work of the Community of Pilgrims, along with planting a tree, and a service project with Human Solutions’ emergency women’s shelter.
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Events!
Aug. 28, 4 pm, Gather and Devotion on Zoom.
Sept. 4, 4 pm, Gather and Devotion on Zoom.
Sept. 11, Holy Holiday
Sept. 18, 4 pm Gather and Devotion on Zoom and Rise Church to celebrate our Five-Year Anniversary as a Community of Pilgrims!
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Prayers of Celebration and Concern
We pray to the Creator of all creation:
Prayers of Thanksgiving:
Sarah’s mother who is still with us!
Safe travels for all of us.
For medications that work e.g. Covid, Monkeypox.
Moderation of weather.
Life of Lorinda’s friend, Louise.
Ministry of Charlie Brown of St. Andrew’s PCUSA.
Future wedding of Sarah and Ellen.
For Lee Ellis of the CoP, who wrote a note to Lorinda.
Brett’s four-year-old is reading Cat in Hat, others!
Children.
Brett’s friendships with the Cochran family.
Debra: for peace and balance after feeling overwhelmed.
Chuck, for his great grandson.
Earl, for pets in our lives.
Prayers of Concerns
Roberta: nephew Sam, ~30 yrs., has skeletal issues, difficulty walking, needs an orthopedist. Prayers for medical treatment.
Marily Quesnel, complications after surgery.
Sarah’s mom and family.
Christian: niece Gwyneth had miscarriage.
Christian’s sister Yarrow.
Linda Fuqua Anderson.
Peace and restored health for those with illness, difficulties.
Global climate change.
Women’s reproductive rights,
LGBTQ discrimination by states, individuals.
World tensions: in Ukraine, Ethiopia, Sri Lanka, Yemen, Kenya, Syria, Myanmar.
Homeless, immigrants, refugees, those imprisoned.
For a just judicial system.
Those in palliative and hospice care.
Our families and relationships.
Walk with God.
God in your love, attend our prayers. Amen
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Poem
Love’s Choice by Malcolm Guite
This bread is light, dissolving, almost air,
A little visitation on my tongue,
A wafer-thin sensation, hardly there.
This taste of wine is brief in flavor, flung
A moment to the palate’s roof and fled,
Even its aftertaste a memory.
Yet this is how he comes. Through wine and bread
Love chooses to be emptied into me.
He does not come in unimagined light
Too bright to be denied, too absolute
For consciousness, too strong for sight,
Leaving the seer blind, the poet mute;
Chooses instead to seep into each sense,
To dye himself into experience.
Buen Camino! Pastor Brett Webb-Mitchell and Karen Cornwell Fortlander