Yesterday’s lectionary readings were all about people, lepers, being given unexpected healing as the God person entered their suffering, namely Elisha for Naaman, the commander of the enemy army, and Jesus for the ten lepers Luke describes ostracised by society.
We want life’s journey to include blessing and renewal, inner healing of body, mind and spirit, after a tough time or even simply a long day. We have found a lovely place to have Sunday dinner. We ate after my afternoon service and it felt good to be full and satisfied.
In the restaurant we were welcomed, our needs were met, we felt we mattered, we want to go back, because what we got was extremely good. (Local readers: The Barn at Terrington St John really is yummy!)
How does this compare with church? Are churches places where people can go and find healing, transformation, sustenance? We’ve enjoyed playing mystery worshipper since June. Yesterday we were in three worship spaces. What we received was mixed.
Church 1 (above) - we arrived ten minutes late. We arrived in torrential rain. The vicar, Ryk, who has met us a few times, leapt out of his stall, walked down the aisle and warmly greeted us. The Old Testament reading was being read at the time by someone else. The service was simple and good. Afterwards, we were welcomed warmly. It was a joint Anglican and Methodist Service. The two churches are next door to each other. The two Methodist folk there, Chris and Joy, introduced us to everyone as I’m taking a joint breakfast service for them in a fortnight. If we had gone seeking help, would we have found it? Yes!
We went on to church number 2: an 11am service. We arrived at 10.56 to find the preacher half way through her prayers of adoration. They had already sung a hymn so they had started early clearly thinking everyone was there who was coming. We had to sit behind everyone. One person turned to look at us in the benediction. We were spoken to, but mostly people wanted to moan about how to keep the thing going. There was no welcome, no concept of need coming in off the street. The preacher did her best, but the whole thing was hard work. The hymns were accompanied by a music box which set them all to waltz time with amazing bits in between the verses. I’ve never sung To God be the Glory like I did yesterday morning! If we had gone seeking help, would we have found it? No.
I’m challenged here by the outside of some church buildings. Here’s the notice board of church number 2 and another church board I pass every day which just makes me so frustrated... Sunday services are just about in this mess. Apparently it’s a Council board we can use but well, we could do better!
In the afternoon we moved to Church 3, the little church we’ve attached ourselves to for our brief stay here. They are now worshipping in the lady chapel in the Parish Church. We knew there would only be a few there as one of them was in hospital and another has just come out of hospital, but early yesterday we got a call to say another two had no water and had to wait in for it to be turned back on so we should cancel the service. The fifth lady who comes had already been phoned to say the service had been cancelled!
I suggested I turn up at the church with a service and a CD player with disks just in case anyone turned up. To my surprise, two people from another church and the church warden from the C of E came through the door so we had a service after all. There were five of us and we had a lovely time. I was sad as I’m not taking many services to be cancelled even though it was for difficult pastoral reasons. It was really good to lead worship again after a gap of a few weeks. I think God spoke to us with a message of surprise. Never cancel the service unless you really have to! You never know who might come and then finding a locked church because we think no one can come of our little group is just so wrong. If we went yesterday afternoon seeking help, did we find it? Yes!
What’s the lesson from all of this for us? The bible stories we heard yesterday were about the overflowing grace of God being offered to desperate need. We say all are welcome, it is the heart of Methodist theology. But often how we put out the chairs, how we don’t expect people to joIn us anymore, how we act like it is our club, how we are obsessed with keeping it going but have lost the reason why, blight inclusivity and frankly the Gospel being shared.
We used to sing this hymn years ago:
When the church of Jesus shuts its outer door,
Lest the roar of traffic drown the voice of prayer:
May our prayers, Lord make us ten times more aware
That the world we banish is our Christian care.
If our hearts are lifted where devotion soars
High above this hungry suffering world of ours:
Lest our hymns should drug us to forget its needs,
Forge our Christian worship into Christian deeds.
And that’s before we’ve even begun to discuss being God’s people where people are. Jesus met the lepers as he approached the village. They would have had no thought of engaging inside a religious community - and nor have many today. We offer the providence and healing of God by being creative and relevant and so often now that’s not in a traditional act of worship that we enjoy and just isn’t reaching anyone except us.
When we are satisfied, life feels good. We put the log burner on last night and Alice was in heaven! Similarly if Jesus is met then who knows what that will do to people. I just worry he isn’t being met because we’ve forgotten how to share him or even need to.
Discuss!
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