Magazine Letter for November 2022
During daylight hours the churches of this benefice are always open (well, almost always) for prayer and reflection, for people to find their God – or just some peace and quiet.
There’s a passage in the book of Numbers which can be read as follows ‘When Moses used to enter the tent of meeting to speak with God he heard the voice speaking to him.’ Closer examination of the Hebrew shows, however, that God is speaking and Moses goes in to hear him – God speaks all the time, he is always, patiently waiting to be heard. It’s just that most of the time no one is listening.
By putting him safely inside the box of four walls, be it tent, temple or church, we at least know where we can go to hear, but we also know that we can leave the door shut and get on with our lives. But God has a way with boxes, and a way with walls – they can’t hold him. To wake up in the morning is always to be presented with the presence of God – the fear and the challenge of it, the strength and the joy of it.
The house of God is not always silent, we find God speaking not just in the silence, but in worship, prayer and scripture, and in the people of God. And in coming together we affirm that life is more than flesh and blood, that we have a God who wants to relate to us, who we can talk to and listen to, who is available to us – not to be manipulated by us, but to be a presence in our lives, to enhance them, to give them depth and truth and beauty, and meaning.
To come to church is to say that the community of faith that Christ inaugurated and inspired, with all its faults, is still capable of proclaiming him to the world, and is important to our own growth as people looking to live a life of peace and love, and wanting future generations to follow such a life too.
So go into empty churches to find peace and sanctuary, but also go when they are not empty, when they are being places of public worship, praise and thanksgiving, sacrament and song.