Dear Friends

When I was younger, everything in me rebelled against being ordinary. I wanted to be different. Unique. You can therefore also understand that the liturgical season following Pentecost – “Ordinary Time” – was never a favourite season in my life. All the great church days are over; no church festivals to look forward to (except Reformation Sunday). What a long time to wait from June until December before we can again prepare for a new cycle of feast days
Luckily, as one grows older one learns to see the extra-ordinary in the ordinary. And that is precisely what this time of the church year is: the Holy Spirit has been given to the church, and now we can start to work on the “greater things” which Jesus spoke of in John 14:12.
This is the time for being Church in the world!
Since the origin of Christianity one specific symbol was used: a boat. The mast of the boat formed a cross, and that reminded the Christians of their calling to take the Good News to all four corners of the earth. Irrespective of the dangers of the waves, the boat sails in the wind with the promise that Jesus is its protection, just as Jesus protected the apostles on the stormy Sea of Galilee (Mark 4:35-41).
It is also clear: the church is transported like faithful pilgrims, through the rough seas of this world to their heavenly home awaiting.
Sometimes it is good to be reminded that our boat (of both our lives and our congregation) sails in stormy weathers. As someone once said: we are not called to be comfortable, we are called to be obedient. But we do this not by our own spirit, but by the faithful help of our Comforter, the Spirit of God.
May the Spirit guide us as congregation in whatever choices we have to make, and also in our personal lives.

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