Rev. Missy Turbeville *Excerpt from May 2024 FUMC Newsletter
“...you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in
Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” – Acts 1: 8
I am the church! You are the church! We are the church together!
All who follow Jesus, all around the world! Yes, we're the church together!
This month our Choral Benediction will be the refrain from We Are the Church (#558 in the UM Hymnal). Some of you might be wondering why we are singing a children’s song as our choral benediction, why we change them monthly, or have one at all. Those are all good and valid questions. The answers to all of your great questions have to do with what it means to live together as the body of Christ in our church family and the world!
The church is not a building, the church is not a steeple,
the church is not a resting place, the church is a people.
We have a choral benediction because it is one last opportunity to raise our voices together as we leave worship empowered by the Holy Spirit to share God’s love in the world. The strength that we need to live as Christ followers- loving God, others, and self in ways that are whole and healthy- is one of the gifts of worship. To sing corporately, as a BODY, is a reminder that we are not alone as we go forth into the world to witness to the Good News with our words and deeds.
We're many kinds of people, with many kinds of faces,
all colors and all ages, too, from all times and places.
We change the choral benediction for two reasons: sometimes to reflect a theme that has emerged in the scriptures of our sermons for that month and also to utilize a variety of styles and eras of music and lyrics that reflect the diversity of ages, interests, and musical preferences encompassed in our church family and community. For example, in December we often sing the refrain to Go Tell It On the Mountain because it is a Christmas Hymn; many of us know it and find joy in singing a well known and much beloved refrain during that busy time of year; and it reminds us that we are to go and share the good news of Christ to all the world.
At Pentecost some people received the Holy Spirit
and told the Good News through the world to all who would hear it.
This month we are singing We Are the Church for all the reasons listed above. In May, we remember Jesus’ Ascension, Pentecost, and Trinity Sunday. In different ways, each of our Sundays in May will celebrate who we are as the church, the body of Christ, empowered by the Holy Spirit to live out and share God’s redeeming love in the world. We sing a song written for children because we have and welcome children in worship; many remember this song from our own childhoods; and we are all called to a childlike faith in God.
And when the people gather, there's singing and there's praying,
there's laughing and there's crying sometimes, all of it saying:
From Blest Be the Tie that Binds, written in 1782, to We Are the Church, from the 1970s, to All the People Said Amen, written in 2014, these songs and others remind us of who and whose we are: All who follow Jesus, all around the world! Yes, we're the church together! So, empowered by the Holy Spirit, let us go be the church: loving and serving God and the world together!
With Wonder and Love in Christ,
-Pastor Missy
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