we bring ourselves: 

   perhaps a little tired;
   perhaps a little preoccupied;
expecting much, expecting little.
And we bring
our thoughts:
   some thankful and happy;
   some worried and anxious;
   some trivial, some deep.
And we bring
our words:
   the unexciting language of everyday;
   the difficult language of belief;
   the expressions of faith and fear, of doubt and hope.
All the ordinariness of our daily lives
we bring to this act of worship;
that with Christ we might climb
towards the mountain top to meet God
and find our human offerings
transfigured
by the glory of divine love. 

Seasons and Celebrations NCEC

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It is such a privilege not to be responsible for anything. Thank you to our Minister and thanks to everyone doing all the bits and pieces that make things go smoothly.

This week I have been thinking about the concept of 6 days work and then a day off or sabbath. It is totally artificially when one is retired, of course. So it has to be translated as 6 ordinary days punctuated by a sabbath for considering the great themes of life. I’ve also mentioned before that a proper Day Off is also required. Usually for me, that was a Monday and Mondays still feel special. Unfortunately this coming week is shaping up to be a bit busy with appointments, so a total “let-down” for the rest of today is in order. I don’t need much of an excuse to declare a holiday.

Happy Sunday to you and yours.

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It quickly became clear that I was not going to make it to church. And just in case you’re wondering where our little rural church sits in relation to The Perfect Church, can I just say it is very nearly there. I can say that happily, because I am not the Minister, nor even one of the “workers” – I simply attend when I can, and am nourished by the sense of belonging and being close to God and one another.

After HBTW departed for church I hobbled through to the study to have a Quiet Time. I gave up the idea of looking for a service online or on radio/TV. To be absolutely honest I was a bit too sore; some anti-inflammatories and a cup of coffee enabled me to grumble my way through Sacred Space and the Iona Community prayers.  Misty took herself off to bed, she doesn’t seem to appreciate the liturgy – she’s too big to fit on my lap along with the prayer books anyway.

Before long, HBTW arrived home. I was wondering whether I would be able to hold up the Sunday paper to read it, when he – looking very pleased with himself – flourished a CD and an order of service. It seemed that as I could not go to church, church came to me. How wonderful. I was being a guinea-pig to trial the next innovation from our lively bunch. It was quickly set up and we settled down to listen – Misty jumped up on the sofa and listened intently. Goodness, it was almost like being there, and I had a picture of people’s faces in front of me throughout the service. The biggest advantage, in terms of having my own local service recorded, was that I could relate to the prayers which were personal to our area.

But there’s more to this story…….  after the cd was finished I came through to the computer to send an email to one or two people to say thanks. Whereupon, I found a message from one of my blogging community with a link to her post on God’s care and love evidenced by the stars – Look up and see the stars.  You can read it here. Come to think of it, this comes from one of the psalms. The important thing for me is that I was reminded that with God all things are possible. My grumbly mood and sense of isolation was well and truly chased away by the local service and by a blogger 500 miles away.

There’s no way to end this except by saying thanks.

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Sadly, it is often true that people drift away from churches because they don’t see the relevance of the worship to contemporary issues or even worse, because someone has been difficult or bad to them. In rural areas it is often the case that people gather together out of a sense of community, yet in many places that gathering of people is becoming older and older. That’s not true everywhere, of course, there are some churches where people of all ages gather for worship and fun and to be encouraged in faith. It is these so called “successful” congregations that are studied by those worried about the decline in church attendances.

I’m not sure why I started this today……. it kind of sounds like the start of a sermon. Confession time here: I rarely read online sermons unless I know the preacher, but occasionally a good first line grabs my attention. My thoughts this past week have been very much on how others see or understand God. Mainly that is because I have been listening to an audio version of The Shack, by William P Young. I first blogged about it here in 2008. It is a book that people seem to either love or hate, and how people feel does not split according to their tendency to follow one type of theology or another.

Standing up for justice in a blog which is by its nature open source, is not always easy. Many bloggers are much braver than I am. As explained previously, I tend to worry about giving offence. It is a disease that comes insidiously to clergy, who have to worry about the need to be prophetic like Jeremiah, and to balance that with the inevitability of annoying those who contribute to the coffers of the church.  That is why The Shack is so refreshing, it stands theology on end and makes the reader think about heart and mind and what really matters. The three persons of God (ie the doctrine of the Trinity) is dealt with in an innovative and refreshing way, and difficult issues like evil, suffering and death are addressed head on.

As it is nearly 2yrs since I first discovered the book I would be interested in hearing what others think.

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