Just Musing

Our island home

Some people seem to think that the Sunday morning liturgy is always the same, week after week, year after year—but that’s not exactly true.  Some parts are the same, but there are all these other prayers and collects that move in and out as we go through different seasons and feast days.  Right now we are in a new season—we just left Epiphany and we’re heading towards Easter—does anybody know the name of this time in the Church calendar?  (and hopefully they do)  Lent.

At this time, if you go to the 9 o’clock service (Rite II) you’ll get to hear one of my favorite prayers.  It’s called “Eucharistic Prayer C”  which is not a very exciting name—but the prayer is exciting.  Take a look at pages 369-370 (BCP, pp. 369-370).  In this prayer we start out talking about how mighty God is—calling Him “God of all power, Ruler of the Universe” and saying, “you are worthy of glory and praise, Glory to you for ever and ever.” Wow!

Then we talk about outer space—which is very cool and not something we usually talk about in church.   Would someone read the next part out loud:

At your command all things came to be: the vast expanse of interstellar space, galaxies, suns, the planets in their courses, and this fragile earth, our island home.

I like thinking about how powerful God is, and how big the universe he made is, and how Earth–our home–is like a little island in all that vastness.   It reminds me that God made the big things and little things, and all of it is precious to Him.

Solace and Strength

Remember Eucharistic Prayer C with all the cool planet and galaxy talk in it?  Well, there’s one other part of that prayer that I especially like, even though it’s kind of a warning.  Take a look at page 372.   “Deliver us from the presumption of coming to this Table for solace only, and not for strength…”

Anybody know what Table we’re talking about here?   In this prayer we ask God not to let us be coming to Communion just looking for Solace–which is comfort; feeling better–but to come looking for…what?  For Strength.  So what kinds of things do strong people get asked to do?  Lift heavy things.  Do work.

This prayer tells us we don’t want to be satisfied with feeling comfortable or even with being healed when we hurt.  We don’t want to be arrogant and think  Communion is just about making us feel better.  No.  We want solace and strength so we can be ready to go out into the world and do whatever good work God has for us to do.

Remembering

Will you help me read some lines out of the Prayer Book today?

“Take, eat:  This is my Body, which is given for you. Do this for the remembrance of me.”

Remembering now his work of redemption, and offering to you this sacrifice of thanksgiving…

We remember his death, We proclaim his resurrection, We await his coming in glory;

Take them in remembrance that Christ died for you

There’s a word–or a form of a word–that’s in all four of those lines you read.  Can you hear what it is?  It’s remember. When we worship, we talk a lot about remembering. We remember what Christ did to save us.  In fact, Christians do a lot of remembering all the time, and not just in worship.  Of course, we remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy.  Can you think of something we do during the day to remember God?   What about at meal times?  We say grace or give thanks.   That’s a way for us to remember that this is God’s world and He gives us good things and we are thankful.  And what about at night before you go to bed?  Anybody say bedtime prayers?  It’s not a big thing.  It just takes a minute to stop and remember.

I want to tell you about a way to remember God that a little girl taught me a long time ago.  She was about six years old, she was my daughter’s friend, and we were driving in the car when an ambulance went by.   “Quick!” she said. “Say a prayer.”  And so we all said a silent prayer  for the people in the ambulance and the people who were helping them.  And now every time I hear an ambulance I say a prayer and I remember that this is God’s world and He is taking care of it, and the people who live here are God’s people whom He loves.

Some people call remembrances like this “spiritual disciplines” or “trigger prayers.”  What ever you want to call it I would challenge you to find some ordinary thing in your life that you can use as an occasion to remember God.  It can be pretty much anything:  the sound of birds singing,  or the feel of warm water on your hands, or walking into your favorite class at school.  Anything you want to pick.  But pick something, and this week, every time that thing appears in your life, stop and take just a minute to say a prayer and remember God.

Infinite Love

Today we’re going to about numbers.  Somebody give me a number.   (5!)  Okay, 5.  Now can anyone tell me what you get when you add 1 to 5?  What is one more than 5?  (6!)  Right.  Somebody else give me a number.  (Add 1 to that number.)  How about a really big number?  Can you add 1 to that?  Sure.  In fact, is there any number that’s so big you can’t add one to it?  No.  Numbers are like that, once you start counting they just go on and on and on!

There’s a name for that idea—the idea that numbers never stop, there’s always more.  Anybody know what it’s called?  Infinity.  And here’s how we write that (hold up a picture of the infinity symbol   ∞) .  It looks sort of like an 8 on its side, doesn’t it?

Now let’s read something from the Prayer Book (BCP, p. 362):

“Holy and gracious Father: In your infinite love you made us for yourself;”

Read that again, and let’s think about it.  “In your infinite love you made us…”  What does that sentence tell us about God’s love?  What kind of love is it?  Infinite love. Like Infinity (hold up picture).  There are not many things that we think about as being infinite.  I mean, I run out of patience sometimes, and we can run out of clean water and sometimes you run out of money and time and all sorts of things.  There is an end to all things.   Even living ends.

But God’s love is Infinite.  There is Always More.  And he made us out of that infinite love.  He made us for himself, because it pleased him; because he wants to love us.  And even if we are bad, or sick, or if we forget about God—even when we die—God’s love is always there.  There is always enough.  There is always more.  No matter what.