Alive@6 – 8 February 2009

There’s a rather good Christian website called the Ship of Fools. It’s a satirical but ultimately Christian site – sort of Private Eye for the church without the cynicism. One of its sections is Mystery Worshipper where people go to worship anonymously at churches around the country and then post a report on the website. The majority of mystery worshippers leave the churches feeling uplifted. But there are quirks. And moments when I think ‘I hope we’re not like that’.

The mystery worshippers are asked to reply to a standard set of questions – these were some of her replies.

Was your pew comfortable?It was unfortunately very slippery, so the collection of pencils that I carry about with me everywhere kept rolling onto the feet of the parishioners behind me. I think they were getting a bit annoyed by the end, but mass is hardly the place to say, "I have Asperger's syndrome. Wherever I am, there my pencils will be also."

Did anything distract you? The priest's resemblance to Engelbert von Smallhausen from Allo Allo, and my worry over keeping my pencils under control distracted me a little. The statue of Our Lady of Lourdes in the Lady Chapel was another distraction. She seemed to have no eyes, just two black holes. This gave her a very sinister appearance.

What one thing will you remember about all this in seven days' time? That terrifying statue of Our Lady of Lourdes, closely followed by the warm prayerful atmosphere. Oh, and the police dogs being trained at the convent next door.

Another Mystery Worshipper received a rather non-existent welcome in Edinburgh…

Did anything distract you? The huge pulpit, which was very off-putting even though the minister wasn't using it. Also there was a sort of rushing air sound which I think had something to do with the sound system. When I got bored I started trying to pick the paint off the pew.

What happened when you hung around after the service looking lost? Er, nothing happened. I hung about a bit – nothing. I even asked somebody where the toilet was, but they just told me and didn't add anything else. The tea and coffee were actually in the hall next door, so I had to leave the church to get there. This meant I had to shake hands with the minister. He also didn't mention the tea and coffee. In fact, he seemed to think he should already know me, because he heartily asked how I was. In the end I felt like an idiot and left.

A Mystery Worshipper would have had a field day when I gave my very first sermon soon after I began training for ministry. I don’t have a clue what I preached about. All I can remember was that a few minutes into the sermon a man in the front row, who had forgotten to take important medication, stood up and took down his trousers. The vicar stopped the service until the trousers were back on. But for the rest of my sermon the man kept trying to stand up again while his carer kept saying in a very loud voice ‘sit down David’.

When thinking about some of our own experiences of worship, we often remember all the peripheral things about a church and the people who go to it. It’s all too easy to forget why we go to church to worship and whether these hopes are met.

In earlier Alive@6 services I have spoken about how important it is for us to develop a relationship with God. If we are to believe surveys, well over half the UK population would say they believe in God and are Christians. And yet we know only around 2% regularly go to church. Which leads to the question ‘Do I have to go to church to be a Christian?’ I think my answer would be ‘yes’ if we really want to develop a meaningful relationship with God, and lead lives that reflect that relationship. We will begin to discover that going to church is what God is calling us to do.

But I would also want to answer another question: ‘Do I have to be a Christian to go to Church?’ To which I would say ‘absolutely not’. Because lots and lots of people may well hesitate to call themselves Christian, or could not categorically say ‘I believe in God’. Going to church is a way not just to sustain faith, but before we get that far, to discover faith in the first place. Christian worship should be an invitation to explore faith.

As with most things in our lives, we are constantly on the move. It is natural for us to want to progress and develop in most things we do. For a meaningful life of faith this is particularly important. And the more we grow in faith, the greater the positive impact on the rest of our lives.

Our relationship with God has an individual dimension – faith is very personal. Many people find it very hard to talk about their faith. Some will want to say ‘my faith is between me and my God’, and not more. But even if this is the case, faith has another dimension, which is corporate. The relationship we have with other Christians. The Church is a family made up of people who are drawn together by a common faith – brothers and sisters in Christ. The Church is the people of God. It is very hard to feel like a brother or sister, the member of this family, if we do not spend time with them.

In our reading St Paul wrote ‘you were called to be one body’. Called that is by Jesus Christ. The church began when followers of Jesus, left wondering what was going to happen after his death, were together in a house in Jerusalem. Acts 2 records they were together and with a physical energy like wind, the Holy Spirit came among them. The Holy Spirit that had been promised to them by Jesus before he died. Ever since that first realisation that God was in the middle of their gathering Christians have come together for prayer and encounter with God.

The unchanging nature of our worship is clear when we look at the reading from Paul – In verse 16 we read

‘Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; teach and admonish one another in all wisdom; and with gratitude in your hearts sing psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs to God.’

The fundamental ways we express our love, as humans, for one another does not really change. The gatherings of families and friends for meals to share time together are reinvented in each generation, but their roots are unchanging. And so even if the way we worship changes with the culture of our time, the purpose remains true to Paul’s teaching.

What is it that makes worship different from other gatherings? There are lots of occasions when people of a common mind or purpose get together. The heart of worship is God acting. In that gathering of the first disciples they felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. Through worship God acts to give us life through Jesus Christ. This comes from reading and exploring scripture, through our songs of praise, our prayers and the expression of our shared beliefs. In communion services we share bread and wine as Jesus asked his disciples to do to remember him.

The consequence of the Holy Spirit coming among those first disciples was their speaking in foreign languages – in tongues. Speaking in tongues is not part of our understanding or tradition, although it still is in some churches. But what the passage is really telling us is that there was a spiritual, emotional response to the presence of God in worship. It changed their body language and the way they spoke so they reached out to more people. And that certainly is something we share. Last week we had a family service and at the end of the service about forty or so children walked very slowly with lighted candles through the church. And in the midst of a noisy lively service there was before we set off a moment of almost complete quiet. The children walked with their candles, symbols that they were part of the family of God and lights for Jesus Christ in the world. After the service two people came up to me and said they had been moved to tears.

Worship can be deeply moving and inspiring as we sense the power of God to love us and guide our lives. Some of us may not be particularly emotional people. We may have a more intellectual approach to faith. But that does not mean that we are not capable of sensing a movement within ourselves towards God.

We may feel we want this more clearly explained, but we have to remember that like love itself, there is mystery and unknowing in faith. Can we really explain why we fell in love with the person we married? Can we describe just what that love feels like? Do we just put down to genetics the extraordinary bond a parent has with his or her own children. So completely different to the feelings we have for other people’s children, however lovely they are?

What we know about worship is that somehow God is present. We have a spiritual yearning and in worship God responds to it. We are constantly on a quest for a ‘right’ pathway for our lives. When we find Christ, suddenly we find perfection.

"Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony"

If we are serious about attempting to lead Christian lives then it is very hard to ignore Jesus’ teaching to his disciples, and their faithfulness after his death and resurrection. A Christian existence is essentially corporate, being part of the body of people that share faith in God, though Jesus. Therefore to be Christian means to be in the community, in the Church. For it is in this community, through its worship and its work that God is active.

We may not feel it when we leave church. We may just remember a distraction like the weird statue of the Lady of Lourdes. I know some here who have just ended up feeling embarrassed finding no one, or too many people, speak to them at coffee. Or perhaps our lasting memory of a service is the novel singing of the person next to you. Or perhaps it was just plain boring. But then so is life sometimes. One thing is certain. As we worship week by week, or even just now and then, God is being let into our hearts. The word of Christ will begin to dwell in us. And the more time we give to God in worship and prayer, the greater our understanding of Jesus Christ. And the more our lives will become shaped by his love.

The title of this service is Prayer and Worship. But I have used up the time allotted just talking about worship, rather than individual prayer. I realised in the end that the subject was simply too big. So we will come back to individual prayer at a later date. And in the meantime we just need to remember that, just as worship is vital in drawing us into an ever closer relationship to God, so is prayer. Jonathan Edwards, an 18c theologian once wrote, “prayer is as natural an expression of faith as breathing is of life”. We don’t ask how we breathe – it just happens. And perhaps that is thought we should be left with for the time being. It does not matter how we pray, we just need to remember that as we do, we will constantly breathe life into our faith and our relationship with God.

And I’ll close with the words which remind us of just why we worship together and offer our prayers to God -

Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in the one body. And be thankful.

©Robert Jenkins February 2009