Maturity and Unity

This the sermon I gave at the 9am Communion Service on 5th August on Ephesians 4, 1-16.

Big idea: To be truly united in Christ we all need to become mature in our faith
SHOW holiness, KNOW yourself, GROW others.

1: SHOW holiness: Our call is to live ‘worthy lives’-fruit of spirit-humble, gentle, patient, seeking after unity at all times.
“Make every effort”. It’s not easy to treat each other well within the church. We know the ideal, that we all cosy up nicely and agree with each other, but the truth is that for many people it is more accurate to say that church would be much better if only the other people who went were nicer or behaved better. But listen to what Paul commands here-he urges us to live a life worthy of the call we have received. He knew then as he wrote to the church in Ephesus what is just as true now, that the best way to measure any community, any grouping, is to look at how they are towards each other. How we treat each other within the church is crucial to our mission and ministry, because if we don’t display holiness in our internal dealings then we have not earned any right to proclaim the gospel into anyone else’s life. So Paul exhorts us to make every effort. It is true that we will have differences, but how we work through them is crucial. We need to keep checking as we engage with each other, asking ourselves not “am I in the right?” but “am I being gentle, humble etc?”

2: KNOW yourself: We are given different roles within the body-5 fold ministry-to build up the church.
Many people are called into leadership in the church-many more than necessarily get formally recognised within the current structures of the c of e. And they are called to do it differently, using different gifts. One of the things anyone called to leadership needs to be able to do is to recognise and draw upon the spiritual gifts given to them by God in order to be able to properly develop their ministry. What is your primary focus? Apostolic ministry, that is going to where the gospel isn’t in order to share it? I know that this is a significant part of my calling, which is why I will always be somewhat frustrated as a vicar. My heart is with the 4 or 5 thousand people in this district who aren’t here today. Or is it to be prophetic, speaking God’s word into situations around us? I know this isn’t really me, but I do recognise this pattern very strongly in Alison with her mental health work. Or to be an evangelist, bringing people into God’s kingdom? Again, I’d love to say that this is me, but actually I rarely close the deal. I’m more of a planter and waterer than a reaper. Or perhaps a pastor, a shepherd, one who looks after the flock. Traditionally this has been the role of the vicar and it is a responsibility I take seriously, but although I have gifts in this area as shown in my nursing career I know it isn’t my primary strength and I rely on others to help me. Or finally is your focus on teaching, on communicating the truths of the gospel to those within the church? About myself I would say that this is my second main area of ministry. You might not agree. But what about yourself? How do you order what you do for others? And how do you deal with others who do it differently? Well, Paul tells us here that the reason we do it is to build others up. So one important way we work out what our focus is is that we look for where we see fruit from our actions. We look for feedback. And when we see others doing something different we look for the same, for people being built up. That’s what I had tested as I went through discernment. None of it can be about us. Ministry isn’t cool. It isn’t an accolade. It isn’t something to boast in. It doesn’t give us power or worth, it doesn’t earn us a place in heaven. It is a responsibility, a burden, an effort, but one that we undertake in response to our call to live in the freedom of Christ.

3: GROW others: Aim is to become mature in faith, no longer infants. Then we are truly united.
And we do it all in order to keep the church alive. Living things grow, and growth requires change. Our main responsibility in leadership is to ensure that the church is always changing, always growing in love, always moving towards the heart of Christ so that we can speak the truth about God. To stay alive the church needs to help every member to move from infancy to maturity, helping them to find what their gifts may be. We need to encourage new apostles who will go where the church isn’t, new prophets, new evangelists, new pastors and new teachers so that we can remain united in purpose.

What is Worship? Part 4-Worshipping when it's difficult

Ok, not one of Rev Clive's Random Musings at all, but one of Alison's...

Faster, Higher, Stronger: the sacrifice of worship in the dark times..

Psalm 130 from The Message
2 Help, God—the bottom has fallen out of my life! Master, hear my cry for help! Listen hard! Open your ears! Listen to my cries for mercy.
3-4 If you, God, kept records on wrongdoings, who would stand a chance? As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit, and that's why you're worshipped.
5-6 I pray to God—my life a prayer— and wait for what he'll say and do. My life's on the line before God, my Lord, waiting and watching till morning, waiting and watching till morning.
7-8 O Israel, wait and watch for God— with God's arrival comes love, with God's arrival comes generous redemption. No doubt about it—he'll redeem Israel, buy back Israel from captivity to sin.

Today we're ending our look at worship, so I'm going to start with a brief recap before we look at psalm 130 and what God has to say to us about worship in spite of our circumstances..
Clive shared with us.. we need to worship in spirit and truth. It doesn't matter where or how we do it, but we need to do it with integrity and in tune with the spirit of God, and what he is telling us today, here and now.
He also talked about why we do what we do in church, praising god, the apostle's teaching, sharing with each other and breaking bread.
Then he talked about whole life worship being about Christ like living, preferring each others needs to our own, living in community and mutual respect.
I love the psalms, they've got me through some horrible times, and I love that God has given them to us as a template for how to respond in worship during those times.
Who is tuning in to the Olympics? I've been reflecting on what it means to be an Olympian, to be capable of such immense achievements. Part of what is essential is sacrifice; getting up early, working incredibly hard all day, missing out on the things of normal life in order to reach a goal. And as I've heard the athletes talk, there's been a common theme; sacrifice, pain, disappointment, but through it all holding on, keeping the faith, knowing it's worth it. They are made to function in this way, to use their bodies to reach incredible heights.
And we are all made, Olympian or not, to worship God. Faster, higher, stronger is the Olympic motto, and it's a great motto for our worship lives too.It's our primary calling and function.
But how do we really worship God when everything else that anchors us is stripped away? How do we make the sacrifice, maintain the discipline, keep our hearts right? How do we go faster, higher, stronger? We are called to worship God, whatever our feelings or circumstances.

To help us out with thinking about this, I'll be highlighting three things. They are..

1. Worship is not about me, and how hard things are for me. 
2. Worship is a discipline, and a choice. 
3. I will worship God wherever and however I am. 

1. Part of what Clive's response to the call of God to ordained ministry has meant for me and our children is that we have been to lots of different churches. We are very experienced in varying styles of worship, and we know a lot about church politics, and the things that people get fired up about. And therefore I have learnt a lot about worshipping God in new places, when I'm feeling like an outsider, like God isn't with me as I've moved yet again. But I have to worship him, to do it with my new brothers and sisters, whatever the cost. I'm made to do it. It isn't about me. Hear what the psalmist says.. If you, God, kept records on wrongdoings, who would stand a chance? As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit, and that's why you're worshipped. These were really hard times as he wrote, as he cried out to God. It wasn't the comfortable life that we are used to, it puts our struggles into perspective. Worship is not about me, and how hard things are for me. None of us deserve God's love, but he gives it to us anyway, and we are made to worship him. 
2. When we first moved to Coventry, it was a very difficult time. My dad was very unwell, Clive's best friend was dying, and then died, Clive was then very unwell and hospitalised. The children and I were alone in a new place. I was angry with God, very angry. I didn't want to worship God, my life had been disrupted in a major way. It wasn't a small thing, just being in a new church with new people. People were dead and dying, and I was scared and alone. So what should we do in these situations? Should we give up on God if we feel like he's given up on us? Hear what the psalmist says.. I pray to God—my life a prayer— and wait for what he'll say and do. My life's on the line before God, my Lord, waiting and watching till morning, waiting and watching till morning. For the psalmist there was nothing else to do but wait, pray..'my life a prayer'..And that's what I did. Prayed, worshipped, waited and watched. Worship is a choice and a discipline. We hang on in there and wait on the lord. And he comes. My dad was healed miraculously. Clive came home. I chose to worship God in a new and dark place. And I learnt who my brothers and sisters in Christ in our new church were, as they recognised the sacrifice we had made to be with them, to respond to God's call, and they supported me. Worship is a discipline and a choice. Through making that choice we reach new heights in our relationship with God and with each other. Higher and stronger. 
3. So what of us, here today? My newest friends in Christ, what if we are in that dark and desperate place today, watching and waiting? Hear what the psalmist says.. O Israel, wait and watch for God— with God's arrival comes love, with God's arrival comes generous redemption. No doubt about it—he'll redeem Israel, buy back Israel from captivity to sin. There is hope, even when we can't see it, and we can't trust it. But the psalmist knows. God's love will reach us, whatever our current circumstances and whatever the outcome. I will worship God wherever and however I am. If our worship is about God, not us, if we are disciplined, and make the choice, if we worship whatever the cost, we will win the medals! And if you are finding that impossible to hear, if life is so dark you can't remember what the light looks like, I'd love to pray for you. Or if you know you've lost your discipline, or have become bogged down in stuff that doesn't matter, I'd love to pray for you. 

So why don't we stand together, as God's broken but redeemed people, and let's pray.. The psalmist says.. If you, God, kept records on wrongdoings, who would stand a chance? As it turns out, forgiveness is your habit, and that's why you're worshipped. Let's ask God to place on our hearts those things that he wants to change, to make new, those things that we need to ask forgiveness for... Thank you that you are the God of forgiveness, and we are made to worship you. Thank you for the fresh start you give us all today.. And Jesus, I ask in your precious name that you would lift up those who are broken today, that you would shine your love and renewal into their lives. Thank you so much that as we wait and watch for you, as we worship you, you come to breath new life by your spirit. Thank you Jesus. Amen.

What is Worship? Part 3- reflections on Philippians 2, 1-11

A few years ago I went to visit some friends of mine who went to a large church on the edge of a busy city. The place was packed with funky families and enthusiastic worshippers who all seemed to know each other and had things to do and places to go during the service. The music was great, the sermon entertaining, informative, profound, challenging and short, and the coffee was fantastic. It made me feel a bit dissatisfied with the church I was attending, great as it was, over towards Rugby. I spoke to my vicar about it and we had a chat about what made for a ‘perfect church’. He caused me to reflect that for me perhaps my dissatisfaction arose from my view that the perfect church would be a place where people think like me, worship like me and share my religious views, a place where we are always in harmony as we journey together, a place where I can do what I like. Is that what church is about, he asked me.


We’ve looked at worship being about God, not us, and how it is a 24/7 thing. Also looked at some of what we do here on Sunday mornings in relation to the early church. Today we’re going to think a bit about what it mean for us and those we know that we are people who worship God, and maybe we can reflect on what it means to us to be a part of this church. Our reading today said something very important about what it means to be a Christian, about how we are to behave and to act towards others-we should value others and do things for them, copying the way that Jesus values us and has done the most amazing thing for us-taking all our mistakes and bad behaviour so that we can be best friends with the God who made the universe. It says we should be ‘like-minded’, trying to be as Jesus-like as we can. It is a great encouragement to work to make the church all it can be. Indeed the passage actually tells us how to have a perfect church…it tells us that it is about each of us and how we think and act. We need a new attitude, one that comprises of a heart that is open and receptive to God.

Sunday Club rules-"have fun", "listen carefully", "be kind" etc. are the rules that the children themselves agreed would make the group the very best for all of them, and these rules say something about how the children downstairs are to value and respect each other and do things for someone other than themselves. Actually, those rules aren’t just for downstairs-kids, they are for when you get upstairs too. And when you get home, and when you’re at school etc . They give guidance on how to not just think about yourself. They help you to be more like Jesus.

And actually, they aren’t rules just for the children, either. We grown-ups can take guidance from them, too. They provide a good template for how we are to behave when we’re in church, valuing others above ourselves and looking not to our own interests but to the interests of others. It’s a real challenge. Who are these ‘others’, these ones with interests different from our own? Is it the rest of the congregation? The children? Or is it bigger than that? Could it be the guests we have with us today as we celebrate these wonderful baptisms? Could it be even bigger than that-could it be everyone in this neighbourhood who isn’t here? What a challenge that is, to try to put their needs before our own, particularly when we come to church on Sunday. How might that change how we behave when we are here? What might people think of us if we all always put them before ourselves, finding out what they need and trying to serve them?

But by doing so we imitate Christ, and look what the outcome of his humility was-every knee bowed, every tongue confessing, everyone accepting that Jesus is Lord and worshipping him. If we can act gently and for the good of others in all that we do, whether at church, in Sunday Club, wherever we are, we are imitating Jesus, and by doing so we are helping our family, our friends, our church family, our class mates, our work mates, our neighbours to discover something of the love of Christ. And then perhaps it will rub off on their family, friends, class mates, work mates etc. and we will see more of the love of God throughout this neighbourhood. And if that goes well maybe we’ll see more of the love of God throughout this City, throughout the Midlands, throughout Britain until every knee will bow and every tongue confess, until everyone knows that Jesus is Lord and that God loves them.

What is Worship Part 2: Thoughts on Acts 2

We are exploring the subject of worship for a few weeks and today we are looking at the Elements, the ingredients of Worship. If you were starting a new church from scratch and could ignore the last 2000 years of church history, what would you do, what ingredients would you think were important for church worship? What kind of church would it be? What would it be known for in the community? What would you do when you met together, and why? Why is it we do what we do here?

There are certain elements of worship that were there right from the beginning.

Apostles teaching, Fellowship, Breaking bread, Prayers, Sharing possessions in common

And note that they added daily to their number.

The elements described in the first century are in our worship too. Throughout church history this is what the church has done when it’s met together - in one way or another. And today we have even added to our number as we have welcomed Shianne into our midst.

Different churches and denominations today have different ways of expressing these same elements – you may be familiar with some but they are all there to enable worship, to enable us to express what God is worth to us and to help others to do the same.

Let’s have a look for a few minutes in a bit more detail at these elements and how we express them here. If you want to know even more about how the C of E arrived at the precise formulas that it uses feel free to ask me:

Praise of God

What we sing is what we think of God, and how we sing it is how we feel about God. –something about choruses liberating churches from confines of hymns. Music has always changed as the people of God have expressed their praise of God in the method of their age. Even what we call old hymns like Amazing Grace are only 250 years old, and so was brand new when it was first sung. You may have seen the film. What do we want to say now-need to keep revising our canon.

The apostles teaching

Why do we still need sermons after 2000 years of preaching? Surely it’s all been said? As your vicar I have been commissioned and licensed by The Bishop to, on his behalf, proclaim the gospel afresh to this generation, and indeed when Nic was given permission to celebrate Communion I marked it by asking him to make that same declaration in front of you all. Mick will have said the same when he was licensed as a lay reader. The same gospel, but proclaimed afresh. Not proclaimed like it was when we were young, or when we first went to church, but proclaimed afresh in a way that enables us, here and now, to engage with both the truth of God and the reality of the world around us. That’s why we still need sermons, to enable the Spirit of God to speak directly to us and to move us from the pews to the people, from the safety of our church building to the broken and hurting community in which we are set, from this place of beauty and warmth to the harshness of a world where people’s bodies and resources are being exploited daily within yards of where we are sat right now.

It’s not just the sermon where we might have ‘the apostles teaching’.

Studying and discussing the Bible together every other Monday is a wonderful way to explore our faith and grow as worshipping Christians, and actually when we meet for the prayer meeting every Tuesday evening we’ve been looking at what the Bible says about prayer. Bishop’s certificate, on-line courses (foundations21), books and guides, Alpha Course. The word ‘disciple’ means ‘student’ or ‘learner’. Ask yourself what nourishes you, what feeds your understanding and knowledge of God and the Bible. If we’re not learning and growing then it means that we aren’t disciples and so we might get a nasty surprise when we try to enter the kingdom of God!

Fellowship

The idea behind having the Peace just before the Eucharistic Prayer is so that if we are out of sorts with anyone, we can put things right. We talk about having ‘fellowship’ afterwards over coffee and that can be an opportunity to share something of our concerns with each other in the ups and downs of life. It doesn’t have to be all serious – there can be lots of fun in fellowship too.

There are other ways, too, though. Spending time in each others homes, helping each other with jobs or chores or sharing skills, coming together to plan something, maybe having a working party to look after this building instead of leaving it all to the wardens and deputy warden.

The Collection

Not just so that we can pay for a vicar and keep a church building over our heads! In fact here are some tough figures for you. You may not know this, but the cost of having a vicar, including training and curacy and housing etc., is roughly £50K per year. (I don’t get that much, I’m paid just over 20K. And we pay roughly £7K towards the cost of having me here.

Now I’m not suggesting that we hurriedly find another £43K to put in the plate (though if anyone has it spare I won’t say no), but we do need to think carefully about how we share our resources with others. Scripture encourages us to give a realistic proportion of what we have and earn in order to share with others - both here in our community and all over the world. The collection is part of our worship – giving back to God in gratitude so that we may share in his provision for others. And actually our meeting together is made possible because of the collections taken in other parts of the diocese. Wouldn’t it be great if one day we could offer something back, or in some way we could share our resources more widely? Feedback from Foodbank meeting.

The Breaking of Bread

This can be done formally or informally, and we need to be clear which it is we are engaging in.

We formally do this by celebrating Communion as we are about to. And when we do so we do so reverently and respecting the 2000 years of tradition that is represented when we do it. When I am leading us in Communion-most important thing I am doing and nothing should detract from it as the centre piece of our worship. That’s why, although I love to do it, I won’t play the guitar when it is a communion service.

The early Christians mostly met in people’s homes to break bread – there weren’t church buildings for a long time. Have you ever thought that offering hospitality and sharing a meal together is a way of worshipping God in an informal way?

The Prayers

Praising the Lord, confessing our sins and failures, interceding for the world – is worship. Whether silent or out loud – if it’s from the heart, it is worship.

Whether sung or spoken, in prose or poetry – if it’s from the heart, it’s worship.

Whether we read formal prayers or pray spontaneously – if it’s from the heart, it is worship.

When the Sunday Club come back they’ll probably lead us in a prayer. It might not be how you would pray. You might not hear it clearly. But know that it is worship, offered to God.

Conclusion

Worship is an affair of the heart.

When the Holy Spirit came upon the people of the first church they went from being frightened and downcast to getting together and laying the foundations to how we worship together. And the church grew rapidly and people’s lives were changed. When we worship together we would do well to reflect upon how each part of the service helps not just us but other’s too to have their lives transformed by God.

What is Worship? Thoughts on John 4.

The true worshipper worships in spirit and in truth.

I love this story. Jesus having a chat with someone he shouldn’t be talking to about having a drink and then talking about her sex-life, and then they have this amazing philosophical discourse about whether it matters where and how we worship God. So this kicks off a 4 part series on worship.

1/ what is worship

2/ the elements of worship

3/ how are we changed by worship

And then after our holiday a last one on worshipping when it’s difficult.

What is Worship?

What is worship, and why is it important? It’s not a word we use very often in everyday life, but it’s common in church. In the bit of the church that I have spent several years in it is used to refer to the music, the singing, although somehow I was never sure whether it still applied to the hymns. Maybe that’s what worship means to you. Perhaps it means something different, like when you are praying alone, or when you are receiving communion. Perhaps it just means ‘going to church’

Are worship and church services the same thing? When we gather here for our 10am service, it may be worship for some or all of us, but it could just as easily be reciting a script and singing songs or coming and meeting with friends. How do you think it was for some of the guests we had here last week? Going through a church service is only worship if something deeper is going on (which may also have happened for some of those guests). Jesus told the woman that place didn’t matter, that we don’t need to come to church to know him. We don’t need to come to church to worship him. We don’t need to come to church to seek forgiveness. We don’t need to come to church to receive God’s mercy. Our offerings to God, our sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving as well as our petitions and the pleadings of our contrite hearts, are acceptable to God when they are offered in integrity, when we worship in spirit and in truth.

Let’s look at the definition of worship. The English word ‘worship’ comes from an older word ‘worthship’. If you’ve seen X-factor you’ll have seen people being asked what it would mean to them if they won. “It means the world to me” or “It means everything”. They’re saying what the prospect of winning is worth to them – that’s ‘worthship’. So when we talk about worshipping God, the heart of it is about showing what God means to us. Do we sound as sincere as those young singers? The heart of the meaning of worship is about expressing how much God matters to us, in response to the love he has shown to us in Jesus.

And church – the community of people who follow Jesus - is a worshipping community. But the music isn’t the worship. And neither is the quiet prayer time. Nor the communion. the words, the songs and all the other ingredients are there to help us to express our worship when we’re in church. Our calling is to worship, not to services. Coming to church may be helpful to us. It can help in so many ways, providing teaching and fellowship, and it may also allow us to filter out the chaos and confusion that prevents us from seeking and finding God in our daily lives. As it says in Proverbs, we ‘sharpen’ each other by coming together ‘as iron sharpens iron’. Church services help us to express what God means to us, sometimes in surprising ways.

So if worship is about the whole of life, and not just services held at a particular time, what do we mean by worship? What has the Bible got to say about it?

The first and most obvious thing to say is that worship is about God and not us.

All too often debates about worship become discussions about specific things and about our tastes. People talk about whether they like old services or new ones, organs or guitars, and why did they do that, stand there, etc. You can probably tell that I am used to doing things informally during church services. But please don’t mistake that for not desiring to express how great God is.

Because the questions we should be asking are about how our lives show what God means to us. When I come here on a Sunday morning I ask myself How do I show how much God means to me in the way that I prepare myself, the way that I strive to do my very best when serving his church? Even formality can express a lack of respect for God if it is not used to communicate how amazing he is.

Further questions: How do I show God’s worth in the way I talk to people or about them? How do I show his worth in my attitudes, my values, my relationships? Last week Graham helped us to think about how do we put God first in our giving, in our spending, in our priorities, in our ambitions? And actually, for most Christians the question isn’t ‘how’? but ‘do I’ put God first in these areas?

Putting God first means living in a way that the world at large may not expect, may find strange, may even oppose, but in a way that shows God’s heart. As James reminds us, it’s about caring for widows and orphans (James 1:27), and back in the Old Testament, the prophets said it was about justice, not religious rituals (Micah 6:6-8). That should be true for us individually and in our life together.

Second worship is about what we put into it, not what we get out of it

I have a confession. One of my pet hates in church services relates to music. When I was younger I listened to lots of very diverse music and I have very broad and eclectic tastes. This week I have been listening to Beyonce, Ed Shearan, Chase and Status, and Miles Davis. I like all sorts. But one thing I don’t like is those choruses written with a sort of Hebrew style that get faster and faster. You know the ones, and you may well not share my view. I don’t know why, but they sort of bug me. Which I’m sure is why God put it on the hearts of the children when they chose the songs for the service after the sleepover to sing not one but two of them when I was on guitar duty and was unfamiliar with playing them. So what did I do? Now I’m not telling you this to make me look all holy but just because its what happened: I spent hours on the Saturday playing them over and over to ensure that I could make the necessary chord changes as the songs got faster. Hours practising my least favourite type of song ever, till I couldn’t get them out of my head. But I did it out of love for God and for the children. And I enjoyed it. JFK said “My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country”. In all our thinking about worship, perhaps we need to hold on to something similar. I see that this has been paraphrased on the leaflets here asking about people’s gifts, and look at the fruit-different people, different voices, different faces, amazing growth and life in the Sunday Club. And I’m sure that there are other gifts lying waiting to be discovered but which some of you will be reluctant to offer up, perhaps due to lack of confidence or because you haven’t been encouraged. Worship isn’t done for us, it’s from inside us to glorify God, to encourage one another and to share with others. Everything we do should build up others when we meet. So when we experience something in a service that we may not particularly like or is unfamiliar, like a new song or a different prayer, or if we are asked to do something outside our comfort zone like read or preach or sing up front we need to consider how it might encourage others and strengthen them.

Third, worship is about who we are, and not about performing certain rituals.

The most used word in the Bible for Christian worship has quite a funny meaning. In the original language, it’s proskuneo and it’s usually translated as worship or sometimes pay homage.

Some commentators claim that it means to approach like a dog (pros = towards, kuon = dog) – a domesticated dog.

Story of Cerberus. Surprise that he did this as never had done EVER!

Here are a few examples of the word being used:

·        When the wise men fall to their knees and pay homage to the baby Jesus (Matthew 2:11)

·        When a leper approaches Jesus and bows to him (Matthew 8:2)

·        When a man with an unclean spirit falls at Jesus’ feet. (Mark 5:6)

·        It’s also the word used throughout the passage we heard today when they discuss worshipping in the Temple compared to worshipping on a mountain, and then Jesus says the kind of worshipper the Father wants is one who will worship in Spirit and in truth. (John 4)

·        It’s also the normal word for worship in heaven in the book of Revelation.

But notice, nearly all uses of this word concern worship outside religious buildings. When Jesus went to synagogues and the Temple it usually didn’t go well. He got a death threat after preaching on Isaiah in Luke 4, outrage that he healed someone on the Sabbath in a synagogue in Luke 13, and plots to kill him when he gets to the Temple during the days before his crucifixion.

Worship is actually about the big picture, about what we do for the other 166 hours of the week when we aren’t here. Do we live lives, in some sense, in acknowledgement that Jesus is sovereign in our lives, in every part of them?

So it’s vital to understand that worship isn’t confined to church:

A church service is when we come together to share in worship with others, to learn about the God we worship, and encourage each another. It is a vital and important resource, which is why worshippers will give carefully and prayerfully to support the life of the church. (look at first reading) It’s why Graham came to speak to us, to remind us that bringing in the kingdom of God starts with our own hearts and whether we prioritise the life and work of Christ’s church.

So as we've looked at what is worship, we’ve learned that it is about God, not us, that it’s about what we put in and not what we get out, and it is about who we are, not what we do in church.

Worship is expressing what God means to us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, not for 1 ½ hours one day a week. It’s about the way we live our lives, the choices we make, the words we use, the money we spend, the time we give. In other words it’s about who we are and the priorities we have. And worship is an amazing privilege, to be able to come into the presence of the living God and express how awesome he is. If for some reason we could no longer meet here on a Sunday we would still know God. We would still be called worship him. We would still need to seek forgiveness. We would still freely receive his mercy. And it is in knowing this, that worship is something we do all the time, everywhere, that we truly find God, like the woman here recognising Jesus as Messiah. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.

So as we go through this series, my prayer is that God will enable both us and others worship God in Spirit and in truth. Amen.

Mother

It is Mothering Sunday tomorrow, and as we give thanks for our mothers during the service tomorrow, maybe now might be good to reflect on all those people who have supported you and cared for you over the years, whether it was your natural mother or not. You see, all mothers are people (with all the complications and variety that may bring) who may or may not have been able to fully engage in the process of mother-ing us for whatever reason.

And mothering might be something that others have done for us too. Perhaps now might be a good time to call some of them to mind and to pray for them out of gratitude for what they have done for us.

I can remember one time when I was young and adventurous (I know, it seems hard to imagine now!) hitch-hiking alone in Western France during a thunderstorm and I was feeling vulnerable and cold and wet when a no-nonsense French woman picked me up, took me to her house, gave me soup to drink and dried the clothes from my rucksack (which was also soaked through) so I could get changed and then took me to a railway station so I could sit in the dry and wait out the storm. She hasn't made as much of an impact on my life as my own mother, but in her small but kind way she gave me the love and care that I needed at that time. I hadn't thought about her since then until just now. And so now I can pray for her and ask God to bless her.

Happy birthday

So, for those (I'm sure very few) of you who spend your time thinking about something other than me and what I am up to, I feel duty bound to let you know that today is my birthday. And according to 'Deep Thought', the computer in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy I am now of the correct age to know the answer to life, the universe and everything.
So today is my birthday and traditionally we like to put ourselves at the centre of things-well, I do at least, but I knew things would be muted as I had a few diary commitments that I really wanted to keep. I had squeezed in the opportunity to book in a cheeky lunch out with loved ones so all was well.
Until eldest son went straight back to bed first thing with flu-like symptoms. Not a disaster-he's big enough and educated enough to be able to make a Pot-Noodle if he wakes up hungry.
And then the phone rings from school regarding youngest. We'd sent her in even though she felt rough as she seemed to be on the mend and the fresh air and routine should do her good. She has a sore throat and a headache, they tell me. What should they do? Not knowing whether she had taken anything before school I did what any parent in my position would have done-I considered telling them that she'd be fine and they should send her back to the class-room. But I paused before I spoke and, wondering whether she might be feeling as rough as her brother looked, I offered to go and get her, ticking off in my mind the things that I would have to miss as a result. First and foremost was, of course, my planned restaurant experience, with other meetings and events lurking somewhere in the background.
So, tied to home I have managed to get on with all sorts of work-related things that I had been avoiding, have had lunch brought to me by aforementioned loved ones, and all in all had a lovely day. Which surprised me. But it has been all the more lovely because I wasn't the centre and yet have still known that I am loved and needed.
There is something very profound about being affirmed by others, about being thanked or about being told that we are needed, about being special in some way. It gives us a strong sense of wellbeing, of purpose. And yet so many of us spend much, if not all, of our lives living without apparent purpose. Many people never get thanked, or get given gifts, or are told that they are loved or valued. This present generation of school-leavers faces an increasingly unpredictable job market. Where will they find the answer to what they are here for, for what their purpose is?
I believe that we are made in the image of a loving God and are adopted as children into his family and our purpose is summed up in what Jesus called the greatest commandment: we are to love God and we are to love our neighbour.
Our primary purpose is to worship God, closely followed by serving others. If we can start with these then we will receive all the affirmation that we need. And every day can be like it is our birthday.