Consider it joy . . .

Dear friends,

We've decided to try to continue our pastors' blog now that we're back to the familiar routine at Boston Square.  This does fill us with some trepidation, as we are no longer visiting far away sights and having quite the same adventures, and - well - most of you see us every Sunday anyway- but we enjoyed the discipline of blogging and hope that it will continue to be a good way of communicating some of what we're doing and reflecting on each week.  Maybe we'll even find some fun photos to include in our next posting . . .

We've been thinking a lot about the James passage (1:1-18) Jay preached on Sunday.  We were both humbled on Sunday morning as we looked around the congregation and thought about how many of us at Boston Square have learned much through suffering. 

We've also been reflecting some more on our experience with community on Iona.  We'd been anticipating a peaceful week in a safe haven and instead God gave us a week of trials in living with people we would not have chosen to spend that much time with.  And it ended up being one of the best weeks of our whole sabbatical.

Our liturgy for James draws heavily on the worship experiences we had at Iona.  We used the service of confession in this liturgy every morning there as we began the day with worship, and we sang "We will take what you offer" during the evening communion service.  It stuck with us and struck us as summing up well the life of discipleship we are invited to through the book of James.

We continue to be grateful for our time away and glad to be back home with you all.  It is wonderful to have a community to come home to!

Pastor Elizabeth

Misadventure of the week:  The James Challenge is (to quote Emma) "not going so well' for some of us in our household.  Jay is going strong, Elizabeth may just have to skip ahead to James 1:19-27.  I hope these passages get shorter soon!