Celebrate an Outdoor Eucharist, Bring and Meet New Neighbors

By the Rev. Ann Gillespie, Priest-in-Charge

Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your strength, and your neighbor as yourself.”  - Luke 10:27

“And who is my neighbor?” challenges the lawyer, hoping to trap Jesus. The lawyer wants Jesus to define neighborhood in terms of distance or jurisdiction. But instead Jesus tells him the parable of the Good Samaritan where we hear about a man who is not considered acceptable or a neighbor and yet who cares lovingly for another man who has been beaten, robbed, and left for dead on the road. What we learn from Jesus is that neighbors are not something you have; they’re something you make.

So, who are our neighbors at Christ Church?

Our Lazarus guests and our ESL students are certainly our neighbors. What about the people of Sudan or the children of Chernobyl? We recognize, more than ever, that what we do, how we live, and the choices we make, affect our neighbors across the world as well as down the street. What about the person who lives next to you? What about the business owners and patrons in Old Town? They live next to us, but how do we make ourselves neighbors to them? They, like most of us, are looking for meaning, connection, and community. Pentecost is an opportunity to be a real neighbor to them.

May 23 is the feast of Pentecost. On this day we celebrate the birth of the Church, and the gift of the Holy Spirit that allowed all to hear God’s word in their own language. This year, we will proclaim God’s glorious gift in the best way we know how: by celebrating what it means to be a neighbor. First and foremost, we invite you to bring a neighbor to church.

We will again offer one outdoor 10:00 am service that will combine the 9:00 and 11:15 am services. At that service, we will have readings from our New Neighbors ESL students in their native languages, we will baptize seven babies, our newest neighbors in Christ, and we will commission new vestry members. This year, for the first time we will invite people who in the last year, have made Christ Church their spiritual home to come forward for a special blessing. We will bask in the glory of our churchyard as we spread the story of God’s power to all our neighbors, near and far.

Please bring lawn chairs – don’t forget the sunscreen – and wear something comfortable, preferably red. Red is the liturgical color of the Holy Spirit and will be in evidence throughout the churchyard. The service will be followed by an All-Parish Picnic in the churchyard. Bring your favorite picnic foods – and enough to share. The services at 8:00 am and 5:00 pm remain unchanged but we hope you will bring your neighbors to those services as well.

Be bold, be brave! Put your faith into action by inviting people to the church you love. This is a call to love your neighbor as yourself.

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