For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

John 3:17

Looking around social media over the past 24 hours it would be easy to get the impression that going to church is a big deal here in the USA. So many photographs of families, all dressed up in their “Sunday best”, most with the backdrop of a church or a cross.

What’s interesting to me – and I told a story about this in yesterday’s post, “Give me Jesus” – is how much the occasional attendees enjoy being there. People recognize, intuitively, how good and how natural it is to be in worship. Why? Because in a very real sense going to church is all about coming home.

Put it this way: Being in church, worshipping with a congregation, is the most natural thing in the world because we were imagined, designed, created, and then born for the purpose of growing in community, in spiritual relationship with God and with one another.

At the end of worship at Hudson Memorial, the choir sang Handel’s Hallelujah Chorus. The congregation was invited to stand and join in. Even though there weren’t many people singing in our section, it was still beautiful to be in the chorus of so many voices participating in such an epic song of praise.

Halfway through I picked up my phone to record and the result is absolutely worth a listen.

This is the state of things:

So I am going to leave it at that this morning. What better word for Easter Monday than that of invitation?

This is the state of things. Because of Jesus – because Jesus not only suffered and died and then defeated death, all for us, but because Jesus is still on the loose – we now have this wide-open invitation to come home.

Love is that generous! – DEREK