Lent Course Session 5 : - Worship

LINK TO FIRST TALK

LINK TO SECOND TALK

LINK TO THIRD TALK

Power Point Presentation

'Discerning the body' bible study

Liturgy as God's work - article and questions

Sermon - Sunday March 25th - John 12:20-33, Hebrews 5:5-10

Sermon for Sunday 25^th March 2012

Jeremiah 31:31-34

Hebrews 5:5-10

John 12:20-33

(LINK TO AUDIO RECORDING OF SERMON)

‘having been made perfect,

 he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him,

 having been designated by God a high priest for ever

according to the order of Melchizedek’

A good friend was once at an ecumenical conference. There were there representatives of all the Christian Churches and as is the case on such occasions, there were ample small group sessions where folk would share together their different experiences. My friend found himself in a small group with a priest from the Orthodox Church, that church which accounts for about a third of the world’s Christians. Well conversation moved on to differing practices of Worship and my friend seeking to engage the Orthodox Priest, who seemed to have become very quiet, asked him if he would describe worship in his tradition. ‘Worship?’ he replied, ‘how can one describe Worship’, and descended back into silence. Along also now with the rest of the group.

It seems, as the American Writer Marva Dawn puts it, that all too often the church descends into ‘Worship Wars’ – where Everyone it seems has some sort of opinion which they are eager to voice. ‘ The Old hymns are completely outdated’ – ‘the new songs are so banal’ – Church is not complete without a Choir – No! A Band is what is needed! – Must we have so much Liturgy – Oh How I Love the Old Prayer Book – Oh How I Love the New Zealand prayer book. Worship is all too often it seems, to steal the words of Macbeth about life ‘a tale . . . full of sound and fury’  - but, if the Orthodox Priest is right only an idiot would try to tell it, and it signifies Far from Nothing.

Yet however much people are ready with their opinions about worship  - pretty exclusively it must be said in the Protestant Churches – it seems that when we come to the Scriptures we Avoid like the plague those passages where Worship is thrust to the fore. If I were to ask which book of the Bible, people were most wary of and found most difficult – then I guess most folk would say ‘The Revelation of St John the Divine’ – a book which is Profoundly to do with Worship – false and true worship, not of course that that has stopped a Lot of people talking about it. But running it a close second, surely must be the Letter to the Hebrews, which seems utterly impenetrable to most modern readers and also contains a rebuke to those who don’t understand it. [ Along with Dire warnings about falling away!]Immediately after the passage we heard a moment ago – we hear this. ‘About this we have Much to Say that is hard to explain, since you have become dull in understanding. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, need someone to teach you again the basic elements of the oracles of God!’. It is almost as if it is saying – not only don’t you understand worship in its fullness, you haven’t even got off first base – you are still in the nursery.

And we Bridle at that of course – well we’ve been worshipping all our lives we say – OK then – who is Melchizedek? What does it mean that Christ has been designated by God a high Priest in the order of Melchizedek? Why does the author go on for THREE CHAPTERS about Melchizedek???

Plainly if this book is all about Christian Worship, then perhaps we too need to keep more silence about it. Certainly at one level this passage presents a Profound puzzle concerning the whole thrust of the book of Hebrews to this point – for up until chapter 5  the key theme has been how Jesus has been Better – Greater than – what has gone before. He is greater than the prophets – the book opens ‘ Long ago God spoke to our ancestors, in many and various ways – but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son,’ -  Greater than Moses – ‘Now Moses was faithful in all god’s house as a servant – Christ however was faithful over God’s house as a Son’ – and now as the Melchizedek section begins, Christ is being portrayed as  Greater than the High Priest of the line of Aaron, the high priest in the Temple at the time of Jesus. And to make the point – the writer begins by making the point that Christ is a Valid High Priest – for he does not appoint himself – but was appointed by God as was Aaron – but then goes on that he is of a different Order – that of Melchizedek – not of Aaron.

So in Christ we do not have the continuation of the order of Aaron, the order of the Time from Moses to Jesus – but rather the continuation of a Much older order – that Of Melchizedek. In a real sense there is a suggestion that although Christ’s priesthood is the greatest, it is paralleled by that of Melchizedek.

So Just who Was Melchizedek?? Well we read about him right back in the book of Genesis – The King of Elam, Fought against some of the neighbouring Kings and somehow Lot, Abram’s cousin got caught up in it and Captured. So Abram set out to rescue his relative. Having defeated the King of Elam he is on his way home when, out of nowhere we read‘Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.)  And he blessed him [Abram] and said,

“Blessed be Abram by God Most High,
     Maker of heaven and earth;
²⁰ and blessed be God Most High,
    who has delivered your enemies into your hand!”

And Abram gave him[Melchizedek] a tenth of everything. And the writer to the Hebrews goes on to make the point that the lesser is blessed by the Greater – that Melchizedek is Greater than Abraham and perhaps we hear here an echo of a dispute Jesus has with the Pharisees – Are you greater than our Father Abraham? To which this reading from Hebrews answers with  a resounding Yes!

And the parallels don’t end there  - Melchizedek is a Priest King – King of Salem, which means King of Peace – and his name MelchiZedek means King of Righteousness. He is Priest, King of Righteousness and Peace. And Christ is both our righteousness and our Peace. And we are told – having neither beginning nor End – but Resembling the son of God – he is a priest forever. How can this be?? For this is the thing – we know nothing of Melchisedek – he pops in and out of the story  - there is no hint of birth or death. Just as The King Priest – Christ is from all eternity to eternity -  This is Most mysterious. Perhaps it is best to say that like the three visitors to Abraham – somehow Melchizedek is a theophany, or better a Christophany – Christ making himself known in the story from of old, as with the figure in the fiery furnace in Daniel.

We are left unsure – it is clear we are face to face with a profound Mystery with regard to this Priestly worshipful ministry, the book of Hebrews, shot through with the matter of Worship leaves us saying – ‘we do not know, we are not sure’ -  and that it seems is important for two reasons.

Firstly, that all those worship wars seem in the end to boil down to one thing – a desire for worship that fits us. However it is stated – those who go to war over worship want something for themselves – whether it be beautiful language, or ‘music that makes me feel close to God’, or making it Relevant. What is essentially sought is less Worship that is focused towards the glorifying of the Son of Man, than Worship fits My categories of the Good and the True and the Beautiful. Of Marva Dawn it was once said she led a service of worship at the end of which a lady rather haughtily said to her ‘I did not like Any of the hymns today!’ and Dawn replied, ‘that’s Ok, we weren’t worshipping you!’

We live in an age where like Procrustes, we must make everything Fit – we have no time for mystery – everything must be brought down to the level of the human and if possible My Level – there must be NO Mystery!! We Must understand!! If we cannot it cannot be True – everything must be brought down.

And here some might argue, But That is Exactly the point of the Incarnation – Christ became like us – he came down, so that it Could be all on our terms – But that is Only half the story and if it is left there we are left in a swamp of self centered sin and not saved. No! The work of Christ in his Incarnation is not merely to step down, and that in itself is enough of a profound mystery for us to be more reticent in saying what it means for us all – no -  it is to step down so that he may be lifted up – and So draw all people unto Him. He steps down to our life – in order to be lifted up – to be Glorified and so to lift us up to His Glorified Life.

This is a Profound mystery – and we come now in the church’s year to the culmination of that mystery – the Paschal Mystery – Christ’s own self offering upon the Cross – the Priest King glorified for the sake of the whole world, not to condemn but that the world might be saved through him. And it is the coming of the Greeks, their presence amplified in that it is the two Greek named Disciples, Philip and Andrew who tell Jesus – the profoundest of Mysteries that out of the depth of time and an obscure race – prefigured in the wandering Aramean, Abraham, ministered to by this shadowy yet Gloprious figure of Melchizedek – from this mysterious root might come the saviour of the world.

And in doing so to exercise a Priesthood which can find no ready parallel, only in this strange story of the Priest who appears out of nowhere with . . . Bread and Wine. We are pointed by Melchizedek’s action back to Christ. Thus when the disciples were told in the upper room to remember him in Bread and Wine they would be thrown back on this ancient type – not the Priesthood of Aaron, but of Melchizedek – here was the Priest who lives for ever, without beginning or end. And so they must have been thinking in terms of a Sacrificing Priest and they were right, but of a type Never seen.

Christ unlike the High Priests of the Aaronic line, offers Himself, a lamb with out spot or blame from before the foundation of the world. As we approach Holy week we hear this announcement from Christ himself – the hour has come for the Son of man to be glorified – truly I tell you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies it remains but a single grain; but if it dies it bears much fruit – and when I am lifted up from the earth I will draw all people to me.

So we look into the Heart of Worship – Christ’s Own self offering – this is why we should fear to speak of Worship for this is its heart, the self offering of the Son of God for our sins. All Worship comes from This Root. It is not primarily a response to it – rather it is Worship that Springs from it – Worship that can Only be understood in thelight of it. Jesus goes on ‘Those who love their life lose it, and those who hate their life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there will my servant be also.’ To worship in spirit and in truth is to follow in the path of this One True Sacrifice

As the grain falls to the ground and dies what does it do – but bears much fruit – many many more grains, that themselves fall to the ground and die, That do not themselves turn back from carrying their Cross because We have this hope, a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul, a hope that enters the inner shrine behind the curtain, where Jesus, a forerunner on our behalf, has entered, having become a high priest for ever according to the order of Melchizedek.

 He has gone before us – our Great High Priest – revealing the self offering that is the Heart of Worship and so let us follow Him in this season of the Paschal Mystery, of the Lamb, slain before the foundation of the World.

Amen

The Empty Church (Part 1)

" Therefore, my friends, since we have confidence to enter the sanctuary by the blood of Jesus, by the new and living way that he opened for us through the curtain (that is, through his flesh), and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us approach with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold fast to the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who has promised is faithful. And let us consider how to provoke one another to love and good deeds, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day approaching."

Hebrews Chapter 10, verses 19-25 

 By and large, the Book of Hebrews is not one of those books you go to in the bible when you're looking for comfort or gentle guidance in the life of discipleship. In this respect it is somewhat akin to the Apocalypse of St John, or the book of Daniel, though much more ignored than either of these. No-one has made a mint out of cartoon versions or a best selling series of books based on Hebrews. To hijack GK Chesterton, 'it has not been tried and found wanting, rather it has been found difficult and not tried". There is hardly an 'easy' verse in it. 

So it comes as a relief in the midst of the unremitting obscurity and apparent harshness of the text - (angels, mountains on fire, no sacrifice remaining for backsliders, and people getting sawn in half not being a staple of Sunday school talks or indeed sermons) - to come across verse 25 in the tenth chapter, 'not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some'. Well at least we get that . . . or do we?

Commentators on this passage note its force. My Greek critical commentary heads this verse 'STAY TOGETHER!' and remarks that failure to meet with our fellow Christians is 'associated with apostasy - though the author does not claim a direct causal link between the two'. To which we might heave a hearty sigh of relief as it seems meeting together is less and less understood as Essential to faith in this day and age. There is little sense abroad in the contemporary western church that we'd 'crawl across broken glass to get to church', or that in failing to make corporate worship our Highest Priority, we are cutting out throats - but we should be and we are.

Yesterday is / Today was 'Superbowl Sunday'. 

[My apologies for mixing tenses, but living in New Zealand has led to me developing a Douglas Adams sense of tenses, it is a little like the confusion caused by time travel. (See "The lighter side of languages" half way down this article if you wish to know more about this).]  

I wake this morning to have found this article on the atheist portal of Patheos. The essence of it is that atheist organisations have hired planes to fly above this culmination of the American Sporting year, trailing banners that proclaim, Nelson Munce like to the gathered Christian fans enjoying lunch in the parking lot,  'HA - HA - football is more important to you than God!'

Now at this point there will be many many readers of this post, who protest loudly that there are a hundred and one Good and Godly Reasons for being at the game rather than being in church. I have been around long enough and read enough material on Contemporary Mission to know them all . . . but I am finding that they are wearing thinner and thinner, and given they've only been around for 20 or so years, that means they're not terribly durable. 

Yes, if some Pastor had said to his congregation last week - Look folks I KNOW that it will feel like a living death to you to be dragged away from the worship of the living God in the presence of the Saints, I KNOW that the sacrament is the very lifeblood of the church - but JUST THIS ONCE can we deprive ourselves for the sake of the world, and go 'pester the hell out of those who think that a game of American football is more important that the worship of the Living God', and what is more we will schedule special services either side of this so that we might be revived after this DEPRIVATION. I might perhaps have allowed discussion of the possibility that their might be some mileage in pursuing this line of reasoning, but otherwise I don't think so.

The sense that Very Regular Church Worship is Essential to faith it seems is at best in rapid decline and the arguments against it are almost exclusively nothing more than rationalising our practise as normative.

There is a lot I wish to say about this, but in order not to turn this blog into a book, I'll tackle it as one would eat an elephant, a mouthful at a time . . .

How did we get here?

In the beginning, the presence of Christ was understood solely as the gathered community - 'where two or three are gathered, there am I in the midst'. Most interestingly this verse in Matthew's gospel concerns church discipline and the Risen Christ ( as we must always undertand him when we hear the gospel) says to his church - your authority is mine. It is mind numbingly challenging especially as we have so learnt to dissociate Church with the presence of Christ.

Of course this association between the gathered people of God and the Presence of God goes back to the very beginning in the garden and is then consecutively re-enacted in tabernacle and temple and only finally does the Glory depart as the people refuse to recognise God 'in their midst'. Jesus in saying what he does only restores the link between the gathered people of god and the presence of God.

The Kingdom is among you was the presence of Christ - living and active in his church. Thus Simon Peter and John do what Christ does in healing the lame man. Silver and Gold have I none . . . (yesterday I preached on this). . . the church is present so Christ is present to heal and to save . . .

Then something happened - it may be 'Christendom', but perhaps that is putting it too simply and this isn't the place for exploring what happened - but the result was that The Church became The Thing. Becoming powerful in the worlds wealth. The Glory - the Shekinah - that marked the Presence was superceded by that which is glorious in the eyes of humankind - the Church, empowered by the world outdid the world in Scholarship, in Learning, in building programmes - and in our eyes it looked Very Good (all that we had created).  Funnily enough it was one of the great theologians of the church, Thomas Aquinas who allegedly observed that the Shekinah had departed, that Church and Christ were no longer the same - that the earthly kingdom the Church had built did not correspond to the heavenly one Christ announced - that Earth and Heaven were now separate domains. For as the Pope said 'We can no longer say, Silver and Gold have we none' - he is said to have replied 'sadly neither can we say, In the name of Jesus of Nazareth rise up and walk'. Apocryphal it may be, but it hits the mark.

We had built a wonderful edifice - an Empty Church.

And thus having dissociated Church and Christ in practise, and the tide of the church's power ebbing fast, it was all too easy to begin to suggest that we didn't Need Church, we just needed Jesus (ably abetted by our rapidly growing materialist individualism). By and large, within the older Protestant churches almost exclusively, we have abandoned Church as of the Essence. Yes there are some on the fringes who recognise that the call is to community, that in the community of faith Christ is present and that that is all that is necessary, but they are a small minority. For most of us, we like to think we're Christian and we think we can be so with lip service to worshiping together.

We started with Paul being so bold as to assert that the Church was the Body of Christ, and Jesus asserting that His discipline was directly administered through the Church - to a place where for our own glory we dissociated Christ and his Church and majored on Church - to  a place now where all we need is Jesus and if there is something more interesting or more pressing, church can be dropped, because it isn't the highest Priority.  But I suggest, that in speaking thus we have so lost sight of what the church is, that in effect we are saying Christ and His Life isn't our highest Priority.

In the beginning people faced martyrdom rather than not worshiping Christ in and amongst his people - now we would think it a sort of martyrdom not to be able to go to the football

"Failure to meet with our fellow Christians is 'associated with apostasy - though the author does not claim a direct causal link between the two' "- for most of us in the West, I suggest we think that there is NO link between the two and even if it might be true for some, it certainly isn't for me and my personal Jesus. Apostate because I don't go to church??? HERESY!!! 

Or it may be that the atheists have got us Bang to Rights  . . .

Sermon for Candlemas

 

Candlemas 2012

Malachi 3.1-5

Ps 24.1-10

Heb 2.14-18

Luke 2.22-40

Worship at the heart

One of the aspects of living in New Zealand I’m taking a bit of time to get used to is the distance from everywhere. Not particularly the distance from everywhere Else, but from everywhere in NZ. Although it is a small country relatively speaking it is well spread out, certainly in comparison with England.

One of the things I am adjusting to is not being able to pop on a train and nip to a conference, and be back in a day. Over the years I would go somewhere 3 or four times a year, making the most of my talent for decoding the Labyrinthine workings of the British Railways ticketing system to get myself cheap tickets to travel around the country and often be home in time for tea.

Now on the day I have in mind I went to a conference for in London. There were three speakers – speaking from different theological perspectives. And One got right up my nose. He was the Vicar of a Very large church in Oxford and declaimed about doctrinal purity and how his HUGE church which was getting bigger and bigger (he was very happy to say how huge it was) had decided that it wasn’t going to play its part in Diocesan affairs because it didn’t like its bishop (with whom it disagreed) and so would give its money where it thought fit, it would call the shots.

            Well I have to say I almost lost it with him over coffee – I am a mild mannered man J and Rarely get angry but having struggled for a good number of years in two small hugely under resourced parishes trying to preach the good news and bring some life, his pontificating about how his large and extremely wealthy parish wasn’t going to support the likes of mine, poor and struggling because they knew better . . . excuse me whilst I recover my emotional stability! I told him in no uncertain terms that if he was really so keen on Mission as he said – he should tell his Huge and Well heeled congreagation they should get off their elegantly attired behinds (or some such words) and leave his church and go support the mission where it was struggling. I don’t want your money – I want people to come and help!!! Labourers for the harvest field.

I was Very Cross!! J

Anyway all that is by way of a carefully crafted preamble. Most if not all preachers complain from time to time, ‘Oh if only folk would respond to my preaching!’ but secretly I think they actually are hoping no-one will, for heavens, if folk Really heard and Really Got the Message well . . .

I’d like this morning to spend a little time saying a few words about our friends in Brockville Community Church.

Just Friday I went on behalf of Bishop Kelvin to consider with our Presbyterian and Methodist friends the future of this church in our parish. Put very briefly – they are at once facing Great Joy and Great Peril. About three years ago the Presbyterian church paid for a minister there, Andrew Scott – he has done a great work and the church has a Vibrant mission to its community which as you know better than me is by NZ standards impoverished – they have a Huge monthly community meal for the parish and two vibrant youth groups – BUT the church itself is small in number and struggling financially and the Presbyterian church may no longer be able to pay for Andrew’s ministry which for better or worse is key.

Well I was wondering – as you know Vestry has already decisded to give a tithe of the fair money and we have launched our Coffee and pastry appeal – Donate $5 a week and get rid of the excess Christmas flab J - and I had several ‘Wonderings’ as my mind Wandered – but then my mind wandered back to that Conference . . . to my brother in Christ who so successfully got up my nose and his large and successful church and my call for him to send labourers . . . and Christ’s call last week to leave our nets and follow him . . .

            Not long before Christmas we hosted Steve Maina and he spoke of many mission opportunities and how it might be possible to get agroup together and go out on mission, somehere like Samoa, or even as far afield as North Africa – and it would be Life enhancing – I think as a church we would benefit as folk inevitably come back form such trips fired up for mission – but as I shared this with Vestry  - the point was made that perhaps we ought to look more closely to mission on our doorstep – which brings us to Brockville, which of course ies within our parish. BUT one thing Steve said did stick in this regard also – for he spoke of visiting a large church wehre very regularly folk were commissioned to leave that church and go work in the mission field - and I wondered if as a congregation we might send some of our people to go and worship and work in that parish . . . I wondered if Christ might be calling some of us to go there?? I thik it is good when we can give money for mission, but giving People . . . well I think that that challenges us – but perhaps this is the challenge from Christ regarding Brockville . . .Well as I said, secretly most vicars don’t want people to respond so I’ll move swiftly on J

This week we celebrate Candlemas or to give it its more prosaic name, the Feast of the Presentation – Never fear I shall tie it all up , eventually J - We have thought about the beginning of Christ’s ministry at his baptism, his calling of the disciples and now with his ministry begun we think about the Lord coming to His temple – to quote Malachi. In John’s Gospel Christ’s first public act is to cleanse the Temple – John puts it there because this is KEY to the ministry of Christ. Luke who like the other evangelists places the cleansing of the temple at the beginning of Holy Week, still inserts this incident, the Lord coming to his temple – the one waited for by faithful Israel – Simeon has Seen the Salvation of the Lord in the Christ Child. He comes to the Temple, he is first recognized for who he is in the Temple – There Acknowledgement is made of the Presence of God’s Christ in the World. And these things happen everytime we gather together – Christ is recognized, worshipped here in the house of God.

            Worship is at the Very Centre of the human response to God – Christ in his Humanity Worships God in Obedience and self sacrifice. Right Worship is Essential – We are not truly human unless we come to worship, indeed if we don’t come together to publicly worship – but that Worship must be Right Worship – it must be true Worship. Christ comes to Purify the sons of Levi, the Priests, so that Right worship might be made. What is more Right Worship is the Very source of God’s life flowing into the world. We tend to think all to readily that it is what we do outside of church that lets God’s Life flow into the world, but the Reality is – and this has been proven down through the ages over and over aain that without the worship of the true and living god – all the Life dries up – for it is in Worship and the Eucharist –that Heaven and Earth are connected

Corporate Worship is the Very heart of Christian Life. To miss out on the Eucharistic feast is in a very real sense to miss out on heaven, however obscured at times this may be.

The Pastor and writer Eugene Peterson, who wrote the translation of the Bible some of you may know as the Message – tells a wonderful story to illustrate this. He had in his congregation a man who like in many congregations was a bit on the fringe – not least because his life was utterly chaotic – he was alcoholic and it was rumored he beat his wife. It wasn’t good. Anyway, over time the man got his life turned round – but he was still pretty much the roughest of diamonds when one day he totally surprise his Pastor by announcing he believed he was called to be ordained – well a more unlikely candidate you could hardly imagine – I can only begin to think what the folk responsible for advising thought of it, but . . . over a long period of time, the call was confirmed. The man struggled through all the academic stuff and was finally called to be pastor of a small struggling church in the back of beyond. To Peterson’s amazement, for he believed he’d done nothing to encourage the man’s ministry , he asked him to preach at his Installation and ordination as Pastor. Well alone he went to what was little more than a tin hut. A windy and cantankerous organ and a small shabbily dressed choir of a few ‘reedy old ladies’ Peterson recalled. Half way through the service there was an anthem – Peterson said – musically it was terrible, none of them could sing particularly well, but half way through the man being ordained poked him in the ribs to catch his attention. ‘Isn’t it beautiful!’ he murmured. Well Peterson all to aware of this man’s past thought he was being sarcastic, btu he looked round at the man and saw his face was just rapt with what was happening – he was caught up in the beauty of the worship that his sophisticated pastor had just failed to see . . . a telling tale in many ways. And most of us, most of the time have our eyes closed to this reality

Shared Worship is Always an opportunity for heaven to break into the world – it is in God’s eyes its purpose – and when it is all about Him it is. But the Worship of Israel had become all about them – an opportunity to make money – to delight in elegance rather than to delight in the Lord – so Christ comes to purify the sons of Levi, for Worship is the Heart – Worship is the Door of God’s Life into the World, Supremely in the Worship and Sacrifice of Christ.

This is something I believe we have largely lost sight of. Too many Christians nowadays believe they can get by worshiping alone – or on the hills – Shared public Worship is not of the essence for them. They are Very Mistaken. Christian Life Requires Christian Worship – together, Week by Week and more often if possible.

Which brings me back to Brockville, but also how we think about the relationship of Worship and Mission. As I recounted last week we have lived in an age where worship dwindled but folk said – it’s OK, there’s still mission there – the church has a presence in its social ministries – perhaps hospitals or schools or agencies feeding the hungry. Except the evidence shows that that presence dwindles, and either expires or loses touch with the Life that sustains it when there is no worshipping community – it is the Life of that community that sustains Mission – there is No Mission without a Worshipping community.

Sustaining the Mission in the end requires sustaining the worshipping community. We have lots of money, but perhaps it is our people they need??

I am of course thinking aloud – I hope that you will think and pray with me for this church, but also about our own hearts and approach to what we do here Sunday by Sunday – Because at the heart of our faith is humankind being offered to God in the person of Christ - an act of Right worship to God – We enter into His worship when we too live sacrificially – we receive blessing from God as Christ is blessed in Baptism – that blessing is for the world. Everything flows from this

Worship

. . .  is either The Human Vocation,
or utterly ridiculous.

Most of the time our preparation for, 

approach to and enacting of our worship,

signifies we haven't decided which it is.

When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?

Kairos