Alive!

One of the advantages of our present situation is that we get to visit lots of different churches, and we can actually sit together to worship because Bill doesn’t have to preach all the time. That is something special for a pastoral couple.

This weekend brought a meaningful worship experience for me. I deeply appreciate the sensible, step-by-step approach to seeing ourselves in God’s light afforded by a thoughtful liturgy. Yesterday, when the liturgy brought us to the confession of sins, the pastor gave a time for silent confession before the General Confession. I sharply felt the acuteness of having a sin nature and the impossibility of escaping those sins that cling to my basic personality. I envisioned this like being encased in a hard plastic bubble where you can see what it would be like to be on the outside, but you can never get there. I prayed that God would continue to shrink and soften the hardness of it.

Then the sermon was on the meaning of Christ’s resurrection as explained in the first 14 verses of Romans 8. I have lots of “favorite” Bible passages, but if I were forced to choose one that stands out from all the others, it would probably be Romans chapter 8. My heart throbs with the awesomeness of salvation every time I read it.

This time the emphasis was on the fact that when Jesus died, he was really, totally dead and could do nothing for himself. But, verse 11 says that the Spirit raised him from the dead and THAT SAME SPIRIT is given to those who trust him. The Spirit who guarantees our salvation “gives life to our mortal bodies”. Wow! That was quite a reminder that even the hard plastic bubble was pierced (shattered?) from the outside when God took the initiative and put his Spirit in me, and that the Spirit of Christ is working in me, even as I struggle with what remains of the bubble. That gives both life and hope.

How lovely that the liturgy then leads us to raise our voices all together in the words of Scripture as we glorify the author of our salvation and our sure hope. Praised be the Lord!