Worshipping Together – Apart
Dear All,
Here we are again – my turn to put something on the website (or rather to give Stilman something to put on it) that we can use to worship ‘together but apart’ this, the sixth Sunday of Easter. Today’s service is an Iona Communion Service which is very easy and appropriate for us all to use on our own homes, another ‘kitchen table Eucharist’ and as usual I’ve inserted one of this week’s Bible readings and some thoughts on it. Think of me as you celebrate and be sure I will be thinking of all of you.
With every blessing
Keep separate, keep safe
But remember you are never separated from the love of God or from the prayers of us all
Mary Tucker
A Service to say at home (adapted from the worship of the Iona Community)
Gathering Prayer
Creator of the cosmos,
Of eternity and time:
Be with us in this time.
Saviour of the world,
Healer of the nations:
Be with us in this place.
Breath of all that lives,
Of people near and far:
Stir within our lives.
Creator, Son, Spirit
God of here and now:
Be present in our worship
That we may find new ways
Of being present in your world.
(Hymn/Song – Sing something you enjoy!!)
Bible Reading – Acts 17:22-31
Then Paul stood in front of the Areopagus and said, “Athenians, I see how extremely religious you are in every way. For as I went through the city and looked carefully at the objects of your worship, I found among them an altar with the inscription, ‘To an unknown god.’ What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you. The God who made the world and everything in it, he who is Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in shrines made by human hands, nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mortals life and breath and all things. From one ancestor he made all nations to inhabit the whole earth, and he allotted the times of their existence and the boundaries of the places where they would live, so that they would search for God and perhaps grope for him and find him—though indeed he is not far from each one of us. For ‘In him we live and move and have our being’; as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we too are his offspring.’
Since we are God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the deity is like gold, or silver, or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of mortals. While God has overlooked the times of human ignorance, now he commands all people everywhere to repent, because he has fixed a day on which he will have the world judged in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed, and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead.”
This is the Word of the Lord. Thanks be to God.
Some Thoughts on the Reading
I want to tell you two stories.
One is from an old TV series, penned by a favourite writer of mine Alan Plater, the other is the story from Ancient Greece which explains that altar ‘to an unknown God’ mentioned in today’s reading from Acts.
First the Greek legend.
Once there was a terrible plague in the city of Athens. All attempts to please and appease their many gods had no effect. One of the wise men of the day had an idea. He took a flock of sheep to the top of Mars Hill and released them. In each place that the sheep stopped an altar was set up and a sheep was sacrificed to an unknown god. This course of action was apparently effective and the city returned to health.
Now the Alan Plater one.
A man went walking in a forest. Suddenly he came upon another man who was totally naked except for a bowler hat.
‘Why are you walking about naked?’ asked the first man.
‘Well nobody ever walks in this part of the forest.’ replied the other.
‘Then why are you wearing a bowler hat?’ retorted the first.
‘Well – you never know.’ said the man.
What links these two tales? I think ignorance and insurance!
Some people interpret Paul’s speech to the Athenians around that, now famous altar, as an encouragement to the Greeks. It appears to some readers that he is saying to these pagans,
‘You’re doing all right, accidentally you’re worshipping the right god and that’s fine, well done!’
But the tone in the original language is quite different. It is challenging and critical. Even Paul’s use of the word ‘religious’ at the beginning, when he may seem to be congratulating them on how religious they are, is actually using that word the way it is sometimes used to us when, in a slightly shocked or sneering tone, someone says, ‘Oh – are you religious then?’
Paul is not, in fact, impressed by this altar. What he sees is foolish superstition – like letting sheep make decisions and then, the equally foolish linking of the eventual, and probably natural, cessation of the plague
to the actions of these animals. You could, with some excuse, call this ‘ignorance’.
It’s as daft as a man who claims to believe the forest will be empty but makes himself look even more stupid
by wearing his ‘insurance policy’ in the form of a bowler hat, a hat to be whipped off and used to cover his . . . embarrassment (!?!), just in case.
Ignorance and insurance.
Would you call yourself ‘religious’? And if you would claim that title are you ignorant of what this perhaps unknown god you claim to believe in is like? Or is your ‘religion’ an insurance policy – just in case?
My saying that to you feels quite uncomfortable. It is challenging and perhaps critical and not what you might expect to hear from me. Perhaps what you really want is encouragement, someone to say,
‘You’re doing all right. That’s fine. Well done!’ and I’m not saying it at the moment as you are probably gathering by now. With Paul, I’m in critical, challenging mode and we’re going to continue for a little on the dual themes of ‘ignorance’ and ‘insurance’. The only thing I will add, is that anything I say to you I am also saying to myself and to most Christians for all of us are on a journey to glory, and few of us are very near perfection yet!
Let’s do insurance first.
Now unless you are one of those few very lucky Christians who never has doubts you, like me, probably have to admit to a bit of ‘treating our faith as an insurance policy’ from time to time.
In the times when, perhaps, we seriously begin to doubt whether all we’ve believed about Jesus and about God can actually be true, we are like the naked man in the bowler hat. For a while, maybe, we seriously waver in our belief, yet, our prayers continue and/or we keep going to church. Our ‘bowler hat’ is our keeping up the outer show while the inner faith is in turmoil. It’s insurance – just in case we’re wrong, and it all turns out to be true after all.
And at last I’m going to say,
‘Well done! That’s OK.’ especially if we’re being honest with ourselves and, paradoxically enough, honest with the God, even if we’re having doubts about him.
‘It’s OK. Well done!’ Keeping going, even if we feel it’s just an insurance policy. It may not be particularly admirable but it’s better than nothing and, I believe, that even this is used by God.
So am I criticising you, me, us, for the times we use God as an insurance policy? Well no and yes.
No, because anywhere and any way we let God into our lives is good and will be used by him, but yes, if we allow ourselves to become spiritually lazy, and let that insurance policy, background type of faith remain the only link we have with him.
Which brings us neatly onto ignorance!
Those poor Greeks. Not knowing which way to turn, which god to placate, depending, despite all their famous intellectual learning, on a flock of silly sheep to solve their problems. At least they had ignorance of the truth about the one true God as an excuse.
We do not. If we are ignorant of God and what he is like and what he is desiring for us and asking of us it may be partly our own fault.
Someone said to me the other day, ‘You’re always banging on about Bible reading and prayer!’
Well yes I am, and to add to it I’ll bang on about regular church attendance too, ready for when we all get back to normal.
For these are the places of learning, the places of listening, as well as the places of praise and consolation, and if we can’t be bothered to do anything about our ignorance (and we’ll remain at least partially ignorant
until that great day when we walk into heaven) we are deserving of criticism, for we are failing God and importantly also failing ourselves, failing to take up wholly the new life he died to give us.
So get dressed and hang up your bowler hat. Put the sheep back in the field where they belong and venture out into the forest of life with prayer, Bible reading and fellowship as your guides (even if it’s via computer, radio or TV at present) And there, our known and still partly unknown God will meet you in his Spirit, will walk with you in the forest, will protect you on the hillsides and be beside you in all the plagues (literal and metaphorical) that life may throw at you
Prayers
We pray to the Lord for courage as we continue to walk, together but apart, along the road of life.
In this difficult time, give your Church the courage to give up her preoccupation with herself and to give time to your mission in the world. Lord, help us to recognise you in our lives, give us strength and hear our prayer.
May the blood and water flowing from the side of Jesus bring forgiveness to your people and help us to face the cost of proclaiming salvation as we work together and apart in your damaged world. Lord, help us to recognise you in our lives, give us strength and hear our prayer.
Give your world the courage to give up war, bitterness and hatred, and to seek peace and healing for each other. Lord, help us to recognise you in our lives, give us strength and hear our prayer.
May the shoulders of the risen Jesus, once scourged by soldiers, bear the burden of our times. Lord, help us to recognise you in our lives, give us strength and hear our prayer.
Give us the courage to give up quarrels, strife and jealousy in our families, neighbourhoods and communities. Lord, help us to recognise you in our lives, give us strength and hear our prayer.
May the presence of the risen Jesus, his body once broken and now made whole, bring peace and direction as we live with one another. Give us the courage to give up our selfishness as we live for others, and to give time, care and comfort to the sick and those who care for them in ways that are safe for them and for us. Lord, help us to recognise you in our lives, give us strength and hear our prayer.
May the wounded hands of Jesus bring his healing touch to all who suffer, and the light of his presence fill their hearts and homes. Lord, help us to recognise you in our lives, give us strength and hear our prayer.
Give us the courage to give up our fear of death and to rejoice with those who have died in faith. May the feet of the risen Lord Jesus, once nailed to the cross, walk alongside the dying and bereaved in their agony, and walk with us and all your Church through death to the gate of glory. Lord, help us to recognise you in our lives, give us strength and hear our prayer, here and in eternity. Amen.
We pray with confidence as our Saviour has taught us
Our
Father, who art in heaven,
Hallowed be thy Name.
Thy Kingdom
come.
Thy will be done on earth, as it is in heaven.
Give us
this day our daily bread.
And forgive us our trespasses,
As we
forgive those who trespass against us.
And lead us not into
temptation,
But deliver us from evil.
For thine is the
kingdom, the power, and the glory, for ever and ever.
Amen
A Home Communion
(use some bread or a plain biscuit, some wine or juice)
What we do here in our own homes today, we do in imitation of what Christ first did.
To his followers in every age, Jesus gave an example and command
rooted in the experience he shared with his disciples in an upstairs room in Jerusalem.
So now we do as Jesus did.
We take this food and drink, the produce of the earth and fruit of human labour.
In these, Jesus has promised to be present, through these, Christ can make us whole.
Eucharistic Prayer
The Lord is with us,
And with all those with whom we worship, together but apart.
We lift our hearts together.
We lift them to the Lord.
We give thanks together to the Lord our God.
It is right to give our thanks and praise.
It is indeed right, for you made us,
and before us, you made the world we inhabit,
and before the world, you made the eternal home
in which, through Christ, we have a place.
And so we gladly join our voices to the song of the Church,
to those from whom we are separated
on earth and in heaven:
Holy, holy, holy Lord,
God of power and might,
Heaven and earth are full of your glory.
Hosanna in the highest.
Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.
Hosanna in the highest.
And now,
lest we believe that our praise alone fulfils your purpose,
we fall silent
and remember him who came because words were not enough.
Setting our wisdom, our will, our words aside,
emptying our hearts and bringing nothing in our hands,
we yearn for the healing, the holding, the accepting, the forgiving
which Christ alone can offer.
(we pause quietly for a moment)
Merciful God, send now, in your kindness
your Holy Spirit on this food and drink
and fill them with the fullness of Jesus.
And let that same Spirit rest on us,
converting us from the patterns of this passing world,
until we conform to the shape of him whose food we share.
Amen.
Sharing God’s Gifts
Among friends, gathered round a table,
Jesus took bread and broke it, and said,
‘This is my body, broken for you.’
Later he took a cup of wine and said,
‘This is the new relationship with God
made possible because of my death.
Take it, all of you, to remember me.’
He whom the universe could not contain is present to us in this food.
He who redeemed us and called us by name now meets us in this cup.
So we take this food and drink.
In them God comes to us so that we may come to God.
(Eat, drink, share the food and drink you have prepared and prayed over)
The Peace
(We bring to mind all those with whom we would usually share this moment,
holding them on our hearts.)
Christ who has nourished us is our peace,
strangers and friends, male and female, old and young, near and far away,
Jesus has broken down the barriers to bind us to him and to each other.
The peace of the Lord be always with you.
(and also with you)
Concluding prayer
In gratitude, in deep gratitude for this moment, this meal, these people,
we give ourselves to you.
Take us out to live as changed people
because we have shared the living Bread and cannot remain the same.
Ask much of us, expect much of us, enable much by us,
encourage many through us.
So, Lord, may we live to your glory,
both as inhabitants of earth and citizens of the commonwealth of heaven,
knowing that we do so with your blessing
Father, Son and Holy Spirit
this day and for ever more.
Amen.