I was glad when they said to me,
Psalm 122:1-2
“Let us go to the house of the Lord.”
And now here we are,
standing inside your gates, O Jerusalem.
Sunday was a very good day. Wet, and stormy, yes, but very positive. There is a lot to write about, so I’m going to try to summarize while still offering a little something of depth.
Beginning with worship. It was a beautiful service, with encouraging attendance given the buckets of rain everyone had to deal with. The focus was on how Christmas has touched each one of us, how our personal experience of faith continues to be shaped by this season of celebration.
One of the elders has been reading “In My Heart I Carry a Star” and asked me to be one of three people to share a story. I chose what Rebekah and I call, “The Scooter Incident.” You can listen to it at the end of this post if you have five minutes to spare.
But the highlight, to me, was the “Time with young disciples.” Rebekah asked one of the children – Cooper – to help her teach the congregation how to “Share the peace of Christ.”
Cooper was great. And Rebekah was her usual engaging self.
It was one of those worship services when nobody wants to leave. You know, when people hang around after the benediction, just visiting and loving on each other until the head usher starts flicking the lights off and on as a cue that he wants to lock the doors and head to lunch!
Benediction
Benediction, by the way, is not just about blessing it is about sending, The preacher blesses the congregation and in a sense asks that we all continue our worship by taking the presence, the light, the peace, and the promise of Jesus out into the world.
This is Christmas in a nutshell. It is God filling us with Jesus and then trusting us to take this remarkable revelation of God’s love and share it around.
Next, I want to share the deeply spiritual experience I had Sunday evening with the combined choirs at Calvary Church. But that will have to be another post.
Peace, “The Jesus kind of Peace” as Rebekah puts it, every day and in every way – DEREK