God Calls Us (4) God Gives Us Words and Asks Us to Listen

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.