Evendays

An influx of visitors from other cities, along with a handful of local members, gave us a wonderful moment of worship and fellowship on Sunday morning. Pancakes were then shared by all, then we drove an hour in the evening for worship in English, a rather rare experience for us, with the church in Geneva. The singing was great, and we even got invited for dinner afterwards!

I am tired of this rain though. It’s falling every day. Fortunately it stopped long enough for a 10k race on Saturday afternoon. Wife clocked near 47 minutes, finishing in the top 25% of her category. I barely broke the 50 percentile with a blazing, and happy, 45:13. Only the "real" runners were there for this one: No ambiance; small crowds; no bands; no tee-shirts. Just a bottle of water and an apple at the finish line. And a spaghetti dinner for those who wanted to wait another thirty minutes. But I literally stunk and we decided to head home.

Having your Sunday worship in a retirement home brings up some very important yes-or-no / black-or-white theological questions. I mean, they are either you do or you don’t. No in-betweens:

1. Should you wake someone up to give them the Lord’s Supper?
2. Is it acceptable to say: “Please sit and sing the invitation song”?*
   
3. Should you put on a clerical robe because one of the residents keeps “whispering”, “Where’s the Pastor? Where’s the Pastor?” all during communion?
4. After the reception, is it okay to go home with a pocket-full of Lindt chocolate eggs (four varieties) that were left sitting in a bowl next to the mini-quiche, or is that, technically, stealing? (Hypothetical question… Honest.)
5. When I’m in a home (one day), will the desire of my heart be to praise God and fellowship at his Son’s table on resurrection day?

True… Some of those questions are a bit more important than others.

*Actually, not a problem, since we don’t have invitations.

Monday after Easter (Lundi de Pâques) is always a holiday here. It’s just like Good Friday (Vendredi Saint). All the shops are closed. You’re not supposed to work in the yard, for it’s a time for rest, reading, thinking, family, skiing…

Snow fell on Friday, Saturday night, Sunday and Monday. It’s one of the problems of an early Easter and for those who enjoy searching for chocolate eggs.

Sunday worship was at the local retirement home. 40 to 50 of the residents showed up as well as 2 great families from the Geneva church who came to encourage the Lausanne church. It was a meaningful morning, celebrating our Lord’s resurrection and the new creation in Christ.

The sermon was simple: Death is still the enemy; Life is greater than death; Our destiny is glorious.

While on the subject of prayer, many of you know that we in Lausanne have the tradition of reading through  Psalms, one psalm each Sunday, one after the other. I wanted to write praying through the Psalms, but I think some of the psalms just get read-through and not prayed-through. I’m talking about myself, not others.

Recently, there were two Sundays when the psalms read-prayed were especially appropriate. The first was when we had 9 Croatians with us for the Taizé meeting in Geneva. Psalm 113:

Praise the Lord, all you nations!
   Extol him, all you peoples!
For great is his steadfast love towards us,
   and the faithfulness of the Lord endures for ever.
Praise the Lord!

The second was last weekend at the women’s retreat. The weekend’s theme was Peace. The coincidental psalm? 122:

Pray for the peace of Jerusalem:
   ‘May they prosper who love you.
Peace be within your walls,
   and security within your towers.’
For the sake of my relatives and friends
   I will say, ‘Peace be within you.’
For the sake of the house of the Lord our God,
   I will seek your good.

Two lovely coincidences, conducive to prayer and worship.

We canceled our Sunday morning worship here at Av. de France and gathered at the women’s retreat at the nearby conference center. 70 plus Christian women were together for a weekend of worship and Bible study. They asked me to speak on PEACE on Sunday morning, which I did.

Everyone should have the experience of speaking at a women’s retreat on the last day, after God has been at work through Spirit and word, love and patience in a group of people who have come together for praise and sharing. Heads nodded, laughter erupted, tears flowed and “yes-es” could be heard throughout our worship.

Wife was in charge of sign-ups as well as working on cooking coordination and purchasing for the kitchen. She worked hard. It was wonderful seeing two ladies from church as well as one of the Pepperdine students pitching in all along the way. Daughter was a BIG help, doing more than was ever asked. The Geneva women made a great team for logistics while the women from Lille, France prepared the program.

After several trips to the train station and a time of waiting/fellowship, two of the Parisians camped at our place for the night. We also met up with two Pepperdine girls for a day-late Groundhog Day film party (in French: Day without end).

How ‘bout you? See your shadow on Saturday?

When we first got to Switzerland we were young, energetic, and full of good ideas. (Now we are less young, still energetic, yet looking for new ideas!)

Wife went to the nearby retirement home (Bethanie) and asked if she could adopt some residents. Just visits and such, but the organization was very suspicious. After a bit, they suggested two ladies to visit, and that lasted a couple of years.

In the early 90’s, two or three of us would go up there after Sunday worship and visit with 3 residents without any family.

3 years ago, we met an old couple from the neighborhood who started coming to church. They were good friends of the director of Bethanie, and that opened the doors to concerts and visits to the institution by university students.

Bethanie hosts a short worship period on Friday afternoons. About 40 show up, including our neighbor friend who is now a Bethanie resident. We now organize one of the worships each month.

What impressed the residents was not the exhortation (which was marvelous) or the new songs they learned (they were great), but the fact that Sons 1 and 2 were present. They loved singing, praying and shaking hands with young Christians.

And they’re looking forward to us coming back this afternoon.

Here is a translated, antiphonal prayer from a Reformed Protestant tradition, Crêt-Bernard, that we’ll be using to guide our thoughts on Pentecost Sunday. (Yup, this Sunday!):
–
Holy Spirit, Creator, who in the beginning hovered over the waters, by your breath every being received life.

     Holy Spirit, come!

Holy Spirit, Counselor, who inspired the prophets as they spoke and acted; you clothed them in your strength so they would witness to your Word.

     Holy Spirit, come!

Holy Spirit, Power, you covered the Virgin Mary with your shadow and you prepared her to become the mother of the Son of God.

     Holy Spirit, come!

Holy Spirit, Consecrator, you descended upon Jesus the day of his baptism to consecrate him as faithful witness to the Father.

     Holy Spirit, come!

Holy Spirit, Light, you led Christ into the desert; by your strength he cast out demons and you equipped him for the preaching the Kingdom of God.

     Holy Spirit, come!

Holy Spirit, Eternal One, through you the Christ, our Chief Priest, offered himself as a victim without blemish to deliver us from the works of death so we could serve the living God.

     Holy Spirit, come!

Holy Spirit, Defender, you came upon the apostles to teach them all things, to remind them of the words of Christ and to lead them into all truth.

     Holy Spirit, come!

Holy Spirit, you Console, and through you we are born to life as children of God; you make us living temples of your presence and you intercede within us.

     Holy Spirit, come!

Holy Spirit, Life Giver, you animate and sanctify the entire body of the Church; you live in each one of its members and will one day give life to our mortal bodies.

     Holy Spirit, come!