I’ve had to get used to not being in Church on the Lord’s Day more particularly since the stem cell transplant when my immunity has been low. It hasn’t been easy especially when I hear Church bells ringing out in the community. Now we are all in these strange and, frankly, disturbing circumstances. We are so restricted that we cannot even go to Church. I was speaking on the phone recently to someone who lived through the London Blitz. ‘It was terrible,’ she said, ‘But at least we could go to Church.’
It’s a big miss. How many times has the experience of being with other believers been a strength and a comfort during times of personal challenge. I’m sure this is what was in the mind of the writer of Hebrews when he wrote: ‘Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another . . .’ (Hebrews 10: 25) My father died on a Saturday but I led the worship in St Paul’s on the next day. There were many reasons why I thought I should but a minister friend from Northern Ireland summed it up perfectly: ‘There are times when you just feel you need to be with God’s people.‘
But even above the comfort and strength of God’s people there is the opportunity worship gives to proclaim our great priority in life. The word comes from the old English word which literally means ‘worth-ship’, the act of proclaiming what is of ultimate worth or value in your life. This is worship not just as self-help but as an act of witness. When we step outside our doors on a Sunday it is with a definite purpose in view. If anyone were to ask where we were going there would be a simple and clear response.
From this Sunday we are unsure when we will be able to gather again. It may be quite a while. But as I was saying in yesterday’s blog we still have the resources that will keep us close to God, especially in this age of high technology. The stories are legion of Christians imprisoned for their faith, confined in the most brutal conditions, and yet emerged as great examples of faith. Whatever else had been taken from them they prayed and remembered the eternal promises of God.
It has been suggested by Church leaders throughout the UK that we light a candle in a window at 7 pm tonight as a symbol of God’s presence with us. Whether you manage to do this or not the message is one we would surely wish to be in the hearts of all our communities: ‘The light shines in the darkness but the darkness has never overcome it.’ (John 1: 5)
