Sunday Preview for June 11 from The Rev. Kaji Douša

This Sunday, we will be entering our summer liturgy, a more simplified worship experience. We will continue to worship bilingually in English and Spanish. We will sing hymns that hold ancient resonance and even familiar tunes. Something I feel, pastorally, is that we need to build some comfort into our liturgy. This Sunday will include some of this. You may not know this, but I welcome your feedback as we learn together how to do church. I do not understand church to be mine to determine. I understand church to be ours, a living and breathing manifestation of the collective swirling of God’s call on all of our lives. Mine is to hold us to our vision for life in Christ together. Ours is to be authentically present to that call as best we are able.

Some years ago on a sunny afternoon, the good people of the Church of the Redeemer, along with the ministers of the New Haven Association of the United Church of Christ laid hands on me after I took vows. The text for my ordination came from the closing salvo of the Gospel of Matthew. They mean everything to me. Go ye therefore, the Jesus of the King James said.

Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. When they saw Jesus, they worshipped; but some doubted. And Jesus came and said to them, ‘All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age.’ – Matthew 28:16-20

Go therefore is the summons that calls me when I’m lost. It’s a beacon, a grounding point, an icon, even, that points to God in my life.

On Sunday, in our liturgy of comfort and challenge, in our call to be disciples of Christ, I pray that you will see yourself written into these scriptures, into the worship experience.

After church, we will gather members of the Latinx ministry for a special lunch at the manse.

Then, we will remember Janice Daley, daughter of Joyce Clevenger. Please do join us as we celebrate her life, cut short but well-lived.

I can’t wait to see you on Sunday. You should bring a friend!