Saturday, December 31st, 2016
New Year’s Eve 2016
Look at us here, at church on New Year’s Eve? What’s wrong with you crazy people?
We’re the few, the called-out ones; we must be a little bit insane to come chant in a chilly church on a night when our neighbours and friends are singing a different type of song.
I’m glad. You’re my family, and you’re a big part of what keeps me going day after day. You bolster my faith. Your presence here encourages me to follow God more faithfully. If it wasn’t for you coming to sing with me, I sometimes wonder if I’d go to church at all? I depend on each of you.
I hope that doesn’t seem like a heavy responsibility. I suspect the same would be true for many of you. If it wasn’t for this service in this village, many of us might struggle to connect with a community of believers.
I thought tonight would be an appropriate time to review why we meet together. I suspect there are many reasons, but these are a few that come to mind.
1. We meet together to keep the fire burning.
If you’ve ever tried to build a fire, you’ll know that one log on it’s own will not continue to burn. It takes two or three logs, often split into smaller pieces, and crossing each other at different angles for the flames to take hold, and for the warmth to be felt.
In the same way, for the flame of the Holy Spirit to stay burning in our hearts, we too must be broken, we must be split in order to expose the rough parts of our insides-- the grain, if you will. We must intersect each other’s lives, to have our burning souls built into a teepee, or a log cabin-- to be close enough that your fire touches the fuel of my heart. When two or three are gathered together, when their souls are laid bare, then the warmth is felt. The whole town risks combustion!
2. We meet together to encourage one another in the faith.
It’s not easy to be a Christian. Jesus asks us to live life differently than we would if we were left to our own devices. He says we must take up our cross and follow him, we must put our hand to the plow and not look back. Not only are his words hard, but living our a godly faith in an ungodly world is downright daunting!
But when we are together, we can assist one another to carry out the words that Jesus taught. We can help our friends to love those who are hard to love, we can be helped ourselves as we struggle to give to those who take from us. Together we will turn the other cheek when we are hurt.
3. We meet together to share in the feast of the body and blood of our Lord Jesus
This is what makes our little band of believers more than just another social club. We participate in the strangest of rituals. We, who by compulsion constantly consume, are to partake in the flesh of a man we believe to be God. It’s one of the main reasons we assemble together, doing what Jesus himself asked us to do. Whether you believe it to be simply a symbol or a sombre sacrament the participation in the Lord’s Supper is one of the reasons we meet together.
4. We meet together because we must.
I suspect that we can’t help but come and assemble and fellowship, and worship. We’ve had new DNA planted in us, we’re now children of God, members of his family, and there’s a drive in us to not just gather to enjoy one another’s company, but to worship together!
I long for the raising of voices in praise to the almighty God. When I hear people singing at the top of their lungs, not because they’re fighting to be heard, but because they can’t help but exclaim-- well, I’ve found myself strongly emotional when I see that happen.
What is it about watching someone worship God that draws me into that praise myself? How can we explain this but to say it’s a connection of our very souls to our creator?
I will recount the gracious deeds of the Lord, the praiseworthy acts of the Lord, because of all that the Lord has done for us, and the great favour to the house of Israel that he has shown them according to his mercy, according to the abundance of his steadfast love.
For he said, ‘Surely they are my people, children who will not deal falsely’; and he became their saviour in all their distress. It was no messenger or angel but his presence that saved them; in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; he lifted them up and carried them all the days of old.
Amen
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