Becoming Safer Soil

Jesus, in his conversation with Simon in Luke 7, doesn’t try to coerce Simon into accepting him. He doesn’t reject Simon for his resistance. He simply sits with Simon at the table, engages his resistance, and offers him a new way of seeing. Then he leaves it with Simon to think about. That was my goal on Sunday—to give us something to think about. Here are the prompts from the end of my talk so that you can continue pondering and paying attention to  your own inner soil:

How do we work the soil of our communities, so we make it safer to express our different needs, desires, and perspectives without being shunned, shamed, invalidated, or judged?

How can we wield whatever power we have well, so that instead of merely getting our own way, we seek to foster the widest possible circle of welcome, belonging, and wellbeing for everyone?

How do we work for the flourishing of all life, rather than merely the flourishing of those with power?

It’s a lot to ponder, so, let’s start slow and simple. This week, I invite you deeper into the practice of slowing down and noticing things…

Notice your resistance… where do you feel it in your  body? What are you resisting? Why? 

Notice your different needs, wants and desires? Notice how comfortable you are, or aren’t, with naming them? What makes it easier? What makes it more difficult? 

Notice how comfortable you are hearing other people name to you their needs, wants, and desires?

Notice your judgments. 

Notice your generosity. 

Notice your tendencies to coerce. 

Notice your tendencies to comply.

Notice why you made those choices, and what they gained you?

Notice your courage. 

Notice your gratitude.

Notice the lavishness of your love. 

Get to know the landscape within you—the rocks, the roots, the dryness, the constriction. The juice, the joy, the freedom, the lavish love. All of it gets to show up. All of it is worthy of your attention. This is you: the soil of your heart.

As you observe your own soil, know that God is with you, blessing you, keeping you, making Holy Love to shine upon you, giving you peace. Amen

This season of Epiphany we look for and celebrate the ways God’s light is being manifest in our midst. When will the manifestation of God come to us this year? Where will this lead us? What will we be called to hear—or to bear? What will we be invited to do?

Some themes in the Bible are so threaded through everything that we almost miss them. One of these fundamental, basic themes of the Old and New Testament is that God is a self-revealing God. God communicates. The Bible assumes that God is a god of self-revelation, a god of self-disclosure, the God of revelation. The God of revelation: that’s what Epiphany is!

If you look at all the ways God communicates, you notice that God is quite creative about it. God speaks through dreams and visions, angels and animals, creation and prayer, Jesus, written words, the Holy Spirit, and scriptures and people. 

Today, we lean into this idea of God as one who communicates: “I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their fellow Israelites, and I will put my words in their mouth.” (Deut 18, from today’s lectionary reading). Wouldn’t it be comforting to think that God, who is with us, and for us, might put words in each other’s mouth to encourage us? 

If God is one who communicates, then it might behoove us to lean into listening! Today, we are practising listening. What do you hear?

Deep peace and blessings.

—Anne

Rev. Anne Baxter Smith
Pastor of the Church at Southpoint

Worship Calendar

Location & Zoom. We meet on Sundays at 15639 24 Avenue, Surrey. Zoom is offered if you cannot attend in person. Zoom link. Meeting ID: 831 1690 9977 password: 753319

Listen to Sermons
Follow “Meditations from the Church at Southpoint” on Spotify, Apple and Google

Blogs
Catch up on Anne’s recent blogs under “News” on our website, southpoint.ca

Sun Apr 7
(2) Opening to Love
Rev Anne Baxter Smith
John 21:1-19

Sun Apr 14
(3) Receiving Clarity
Rev Anne Baxter Smith
Acts 3:12-19
 
Sun Apr 21
Rev Scott Swanson
Acts 4:5-12

New to Southpoint?

At Southpoint, it all begins with God’s love. Just as a plant grows, it receives sunshine, so we grow as we receive God’s love. At Southpoint, we are growing in our capacity to love God, ourselves, one another, and creation.

We seek to be a community of grace that is intentional yet organic, spacious yet authentic, grace-filled yet accountable. * We are fully welcoming. *

We encourage relationships rather than run programs, yet we recognize the importance of intentionality and structure as we nurture life together.

As a community, we seek to put our love in action. We value helping out on Sunday mornings, sharing food, and showing up in hard times. We keep our church life simple so folk have time to build relationships with family, friends, and neighbours. We encourage folk to serve in tangible ways within the wider community. We rent space rather than own a building, allowing us to do more with less, supporting missions at home and abroad.

Curious to know more?

These six slides express what motivates our ministry (best viewed on a monitor). Here’s the bio of our Pastor, Rev. Anne Baxter Smith.

If you’d like to really peek inside, sign up for our weekly Southpoint News (scroll to brown footer at bottom of page). The Southpoint News is a MailChimp distributed email—you can unsubscribe anytime and will not be added to our contacts list. Email us at office@southpoint.ca. Website: southpoint.ca.

Sun. Nov 6   Luke 8:22-39 
Unsafe or Uncomfortable?
Guest speaker: Nancy DeVries

Sun. Nov 13
Holding Space 
John 11:1-44

Sun. Nov 20
Right and Wrong
Luke 14:1-6 

Joining by Zoom?
We continue to have a zoom offering if you cannot attend in  person! The Zoom meeting link is here.

If you have trouble with the link, use:
meeting ID: 831 1690 9977
with password: 753319

New to Southpoint?

At Southpoint, it all begins with God’s love. Just as a plant grows, it receives sunshine, so we grow as we receive God’s love. At Southpoint, we are growing in our capacity to love God, ourselves, one another, and creation.

We seek to be a community of grace that is intentional yet organic, spacious yet authentic, grace-filled yet accountable. * We are fully welcoming. *

We encourage relationships rather than run programs, yet we recognize the importance of intentionality and structure as we nurture life together.

As a community, we seek to put our love in action. We value helping out on Sunday mornings, sharing food, and showing up in hard times. We keep our church life simple so folk have time to build relationships with family, friends, and neighbours. We encourage folk to serve in tangible ways within the wider community. We rent space rather than own a building, allowing us to do more with less, supporting missions at home and abroad.

Curious to know more?

These six slides express what motivates our ministry (best viewed on a monitor). Here’s the bio of our Pastor, Rev. Anne Baxter Smith.

If you’d like to really peek inside, sign up for our weekly Southpoint News (scroll to brown footer at bottom of page). The Southpoint News is a MailChimp distributed email—you can unsubscribe anytime and will not be added to our contacts list. Email us at office@southpoint.ca. Website: southpoint.ca.