EPC Service 5-31-20

Worship Service for 5/31/2020

High Wind and Fire

On that first Pentecost the wind and the fire were only hints of what was about to happen. Frightened folk gulped a couple of times and spoke about Jesus. They said, “This Jesus whom you crucified, God has named Lord and Messiah by raising him from the dead." They said, “The old barriers between Jew and Gentile, between men and women, between slave and free, don’t matter now.” They said, “Let’s hit the road.”

The Spirit, who had patted chaos into shape and whispered in the ears of prophets and poets, began to pat sinners into shape and to speak clearly about forgiveness and love and community and freedom and joy. Not everyone got it, of course, but enough got it so that the world was never the same.

Dear friends in Christ, I pray that the Spirit will blow in and through us in ways that refresh our own spirits in new ways we never imagined!

I give thanksgiving to my niece, Ashley Herron, who helped lead worship with me this day. Ashley has been home from her assignment in Niger since March, and will be moving to Washington D.C. in the next few weeks to continue her work with Cultivating New Frontiers in Agriculture. My heart continues to be grateful for Fred and Chandra; and a heartfelt thank you to those serving on our Re-Entry Task Force and Session members who are keeping our physical health at the forefront of decisions, while trying to find ways to safely care for our spiritual health.
The Re-Entry Task Force sent recommendations to the Session regarding the subject of resuming in-house worship. The Session has acted upon those recommendations and you will be receiving a letter concerning this. Please be mindful and prayerful that all decisions we make are done with the greatest prayer and discernment AND with the most current guidelines and research available at the time of the decision. You and Iare in living in a world where information is changing rapidly, so please bear with us as we navigate the ways that bring about the safest possibilities for gathering again.
Until that time, the Lord is between you and me, blessing and keeping us. May we offer our thanksgiving to our God who was, is and will ever be!

Pastor Sherry

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