The following is an excerpt from a sermon by Bob Root on “Bring a Friend Sunday”.

There are many questions which bring people to Mark Street United Church: What are we doing when we gather here in this place on a Sunday morning?  What brings us to the company of other people?  What draws us into the mystery of life greater than ourselves?  Why do bad things happen to good people?  Why do people we love leave us?  How can we find our way through this difficult and challenging world?  What do we do with feelings of gratitude so deep that we cannot hold them in?  What are we supposed to be doing to help bring justice and peace and healing to the world?

These questions and others are what bring people here to this place.  Some come occasionally; others at times of particular need; some cannot imagine a week without being here:  the week would not feel right without this touchstone of experience.  We, among all creatures, seek to understand the meaning of our lives, the “why” of our existence, the purpose which gives us strength enough to get out of bed in the morning and put one foot in front of the other, the moments  which call us to joy and confidence even in the midst of struggle and pain.  In our search­ing, we join with other travellers living into the answers to these and many others of life’s “wonderings.”  In our world today, there is a tremendous restlessness, a rootlessness, an uneasiness.  It seems much of the time that we have lost our way about the things that really matter.

And so, as a community of faith, we gather week by week by week, to place ourselves and our living in the context of the care of the One who created the heavens and the earth.  We come into God’s presence.

When we gather, our service is shaped around a predictable familiarity that we call ritual.  It may seem strange if it is new to you.  Coming into a family often introduces us to things that are puzzling.  We gather together, singing a hymn and offering prayer that reminds us that we are together in God’s presence.  We remember that we are a family and celebrate happy and sad times in one another’s lives.  We are part of one another’s celebrations and challenges.  We hear stories from the Bible that help us know ourselves and our living more clearly, for we can see ourselves and the world as it is through the telling and the hearing of these stories.  We respond to these stories through prayer, through reflection, through music.  We don’t always understand what is going on; every Sunday does not necessarily touch us deeply, but neither does it need to; it is enough to be here and be part of this community, to find in this place strength and friendship with one another and with God.  There are other times when we are together that something in the service will almost take our breath away with its beauty and power and wonder.  We come as we are, but we do not leave the same.

As a community, we seek to support each other as we make our life’s journey.  We seek God’s presence and wisdom as we do this. Our welcome is for all people; our call to care for one another is genuine. Most of the time, I think we do a pretty good job of it.  At other times, because we are human and the church is a human institution, we don’t do so well. We let one another down and disappoint one another.  But still we come here because we believe in some way that God is here.  Because we believe that in this place, the questions of life can be asked honestly; the pain of life can be shared with others; the joys of life can be celebrated in community.

Today is Bring a Friend Sunday, and so to you folks who have come as friends:  Welcome.  We are so pleased that you are here. We hope you feel the hospitality of our congregation. You are welcome here anytime. There is so much I would have you know about our life together in this place, so much that can only be ex­perienced over time:  that our life is rich and full; that we laugh often; that we cry together; that we seek to discern God’s purpose for our living – as individuals and as a community; that we understand that life is not about ourselves alone, but that we are called to make the world a better place; that there is not “us” and “them” in the world; there is only “we.”  We gather here week by week by week because our lives are richer when we do this.

If I could say to you only one thing this morning, it would be this:  you are loved, loved more than you will ever know, loved not because you are perfect, but because God made you. You are not alone – we are here with one another to share the road, and God’s Spirit companions the journey.  We believe – we know – the journey is worth it.

French theologian Teilhard de Chardin reminds us:  “You are not a human being in search of a spiritual experience. You are a spiritual being immersed in a human experience.”  We come here and make our appeal to God in the same words of the desert fathers and mothers so many centuries ago: “God, make us truly alive.”  If spiritual formation is grounded in practices, ways of life, things that we do with and for each other to make and keep life human, then we are invited to practise being fully present to one another and to God, placing ourselves in the presence of awe and joy and mystery. And when life is challenging and difficult, more than we might ever have though­t possible, there is a community, a people, to journey with us, a faith to hold us together. People in the church know this; know our need of one another to make the journey together.”

Enjoy this day, for it is God’s gift to us.
Honour the questions; live into their answers.
Be glad for this time together,
for you are welcome here.
Open your eyes to the wonder of this time, this place, these people, God’s world.
And may our journey be blessed with sturdy companions and a love to fill and heal the universe.  Amen.