Prayer:
Holy One, Humble One, Almighty One, Vulnerable One -
Dwell among us as joy, truth, passion, and justice,
so that we can celebrate your goodness in Christ. AMEN

Friday evening I attended a music workshop sponsored by Jocelyn Pritchard and friends. The leader at this event in Canadian Mem. United Church was Pablo Sosa, an Argentinian Methodist Church minister. He was teaching us to appreciate music from around the world.
His main theme was that music from other cultures is a gift - opening to us a deeper sense of God's mystery and majesty. So we had a wonderful evening. We sang in different languages, rhythms and beats the music of celebration and worship.

At one point, when we 150 were particularly wooden in our way of singing, he described us as "God's chosen, frozen."
That of course, had nothing to do with the climate here in Canada.
It reflected more the climate of our souls and personalities - how stingy or, perhaps, how hollow we often are at expressing our faith in God.

We in the northern hemisphere can talk about being a celebrating community - but an Argentinian could be forgiven if he felt we are a somewhat stiff and unenthusiastic bunch on too many Sundays. We are generally more comfortable with mind and control, than with heart and festivity.

I remember a memorable New Year's Eve in my parental home. I think we were welcoming Canada's centennial year 1967.
We had hats and crackers, but more than that we got pots and pans and ladles and bells and whistles
and when the hall grandfather clock struck midnight, we filled the house with unaccustomed cacophony of clashing pans and whistles and whoops and hollers.
For a household well-trained in Calvinistic reserve and Canadian moderation, it was an exceptional display of frivolity and exuberance!
And that, of course, is exactly why I remember it!
We need to learn how to celebrate freely!

"Celebrating" has many faces in a local church like this.

Let's start with worship. Generally you can count on it not getting too raucous on a Shaughnessy Sunday morning.
You may have noticed!
Too bad - wouldn't it do us all good to let go more frequently and to let God move us, shake us, rouse us?
If you agree, you might just say : AMEN. AMEN!

In worship, celebrating happens as we
· Let our heart and voice express joyfully their pleasure at being in God's presence,
· overflow with gratitude to God for life and health and all we need,
· witness to God's great acts in creation, in our lives and in our history, especially as we witness to Christ's self-giving for us
· are conscious of God's majesty and mystery.

Tom Troeger and Carol Doran teach worship in two American theological schools [Ilif in Denver & Colgate Rochester in NY state, resp.] and they tell of a pastor attending a worship workshop they were once leading.
The pastor had led worship for 38 years and a friend wondered why he still needed to attend such a workshop.
The pastor replied: I was not sure what I wanted when I came to the workshop. I only knew something was missing from our church's worship though I could not name it.
But now, he said, I can. It came clear to me yesterday. When we shared our different images of God, I realized how limited my own image of God had become.
I want to know more of the fullness of God.
I want to become OPEN TO GLORY, and
I want that for the people when we gather for worship.
[p. 7; Open to Glory; Thomas Troeger and Carol Doran. 1993 Judson Press, Valley Forge.]

I sense that's what we all seek as we come to worship:
To be OPEN TO GLORY, aware of God's majesty and mystery, gathering in awe of the living God,
appreciating the wonderful goodness and generosity of God. recognizing the amazing subtlety of God;
marveling at God's willingness to dwell among us
and challenging the pretensions of the proud and the self-sufficient, with Christ's weakness and vulnerability;
enjoying the community called together by the Spirit
reveling in the many gifts of the Spirit in each of us
rejoicing in the mission that brings God's healing and justice in the world.

If that is some of what you seek and appreciate in worship here, I invite you to boldly say AMEN. AMEN

To help us celebrate God's redeeming presence we have received great legacy:
· A wonderful space where we can meet openly and freely to worship
· Symbols esp. in the windows before and behind you and the special hangings for Lent and Advent, the cup, chalice, cross, and candle - meaningful gifts for celebrating. We have a desire to make other media - the various arts - make our celebrating richer and deeper.
· Musical instruments - esp. the organ and piano, but increasingly additional instruments which help us more profoundly rejoice in God;
· And central to all our celebrating are people - you and I - a congregation of people from diverse origins and varied ages - willing to risk putting ourselves and our many gifts forward - gifts of voices - isn't wonderful when the kids sing and speak? Isn't it a gift when various people take smaller and larger parts in worship? Isn't it a gift when we can share the peace of Christ and thereby deepen community?
We need to find other ways to make ourselves more open to each other in worship.

[What I do regret is that we are not as effective at creating community in this space as we might. The way our sanctuary is laid out with rigid pews and separated split chancel focusing too much on a high pulpit - all that hinders our sense of being a community of sharing and celebrating. We'll need to address that sometime so that we can cultivate greater intimacy in this place, even as we foster richer celebration.]

Most of our congregational celebrating centers around the table.
Whether it is the extended family potluck supper next Sunday evening, or the pancake Tuesday supper, or the 75th Anniversary Banquet in April, or the weekly Wednesday communion in the chapel, or this communion table drawing us together every Sunday and esp. on communion Sunday - the table centres the Christian community's celebrating.

For me there is an increasingly meaningful connection between this Christ table and the table in the dining room in our home.
That table comes from Oka, Quebec.
We are told it is over 200 years old and we often fantasize about how many kinds of celebrating took place at that table over the centuries and continue now.
· It was and still is used for feasting - great meals where God's bounty and generosity are recognized.
· It is a centre for hospitality and generosity to the stranger and the visitor
· for parties - birthdays, anniversaries, graduations celebrating milestones in lives;
· But also for quiet meals where deep sharing and intimacy - communion with friends and family and God is experienced.
· that table is where we most frequently thank God for the gifts of the earth and the gifts of living.
· But we also use it for work - sewing, writing, reading, learning, doing crafts -
· We often wonder whether the table in our home was also used way back as a birthing table with all the pain and joy attending;

Meister Eckhart, that great mystic of the 13th century, once wrote:
From all eternity, God lies on a maternity bed giving birth. The essence of God is birthing.
And I like to think that at our dining room table, God is birthing a deeper vision and still more cause for celebration.

I trust that's what God is doing at the tables in all our homes and at this communion table: birthing a new creation - in our hearts, in our homes; and in our church.

The table is at the centre of our celebrating - God is present here.
It's where we remember that the self-giving weakness of Christ becomes the source of God's wisdom and nurturing love, and where we expect God to give birth to the caring and learning, community that reaches far beyond itself to mend the world.
If you share that dream, that longing, that promise of God, for a new world, boldly say AMEN with me. AMEN

In a few minutes we will come to the table for God's bread and wine, so spartan and yet so richly symbolic of God's abundance and grace.
When you come, remember that our celebrating here is but a pale reflection, a foretaste of that great feast the Gospels speak of. The Gospels speak of
the great feast where all God's children gather with all God's creatures, together GLORY IN GOD

If you believe that a feast where ALL can "glory in God" is a vision worthy of our dreaming and hoping and praying and working, then with heart and voice exclaim your: AMEN! May it be so! Thanks be to God.