Church scattered
The priests are in mourning (Joel 1:9)
Priests are listed as those affected by the tragedy only second after drunkards. And the reason? No one has anything to offer for sacrifice. Excuse me if I'm lacking in sensitivity, but this doesn't seem an obvious top priority for a country faced with such a great disaster. And that's talking as a priest myself.
I had a phone call with one of my parishioners the other day understandably upset that the village churches had been closed by order of the government. Not just closed to public worship but locked and with a very official notice pinned to the door. I could see his point but responded with what I thought were sensible ideas: it wasn't really about village churches but those in towns and cities, which could easily become gathering points; you couldn't have one rule for urban and another for country; we need to let people see that you don't need to be in church for God to hear our prayers.
As I say sensible points, but this verse has set me thinking. It would be easy to denigrate these priests, of course. They come second after the drunkards, and in that context it's quite possible that their desire for sacrifices is simply greed. No more drink offerings. Like a modern priest who is missing finishing up the communal cup because he likes a quiet glass of wine of a Sunday morning. But I'm not so sure. Next in the list is farmers, and they don't fit this pattern of personal gain.
No, I wonder if it is not merely the nation's giving which has dried up but the nation's worship. The grain offerings are not so much the equivalent of the collection plate but of the collected prayers. The worshipping community of Israel has ceased to function.
Thus my friend's concern is much more pertinent than I first realised. Where I heard a concern about building and function, he was worried about worship and spiritual health. While I was promoting the value of church scattered, he was bemoaning the loss of church gathered. Now both matter, and I suspect, at least in the country, with our grand old buildings, we are prone to over-value church gathered and underrate church scattered, but that does not mean the lack of the gathered prayers of God's people is not a great loss to the nation.
So we as church need to find ways to gather as we are scattered, by internet, by phone, by live feed, by chat room, by coordinated prayer, while at the same time delighting in the blessings of finding God wherever we are in the everyday simplicities of life, in the care of needy neighbour, in the coordination of local support. A church cut off from church is not a church cut off from worship, gathered or scattered. All it does is reveal the well-springs of our hearts: do we worship because we can gather in a beautiful building or do we worship because we know the presence of a beautiful God.
Priests are listed as those affected by the tragedy only second after drunkards. And the reason? No one has anything to offer for sacrifice. Excuse me if I'm lacking in sensitivity, but this doesn't seem an obvious top priority for a country faced with such a great disaster. And that's talking as a priest myself.
I had a phone call with one of my parishioners the other day understandably upset that the village churches had been closed by order of the government. Not just closed to public worship but locked and with a very official notice pinned to the door. I could see his point but responded with what I thought were sensible ideas: it wasn't really about village churches but those in towns and cities, which could easily become gathering points; you couldn't have one rule for urban and another for country; we need to let people see that you don't need to be in church for God to hear our prayers.
As I say sensible points, but this verse has set me thinking. It would be easy to denigrate these priests, of course. They come second after the drunkards, and in that context it's quite possible that their desire for sacrifices is simply greed. No more drink offerings. Like a modern priest who is missing finishing up the communal cup because he likes a quiet glass of wine of a Sunday morning. But I'm not so sure. Next in the list is farmers, and they don't fit this pattern of personal gain.
No, I wonder if it is not merely the nation's giving which has dried up but the nation's worship. The grain offerings are not so much the equivalent of the collection plate but of the collected prayers. The worshipping community of Israel has ceased to function.
Thus my friend's concern is much more pertinent than I first realised. Where I heard a concern about building and function, he was worried about worship and spiritual health. While I was promoting the value of church scattered, he was bemoaning the loss of church gathered. Now both matter, and I suspect, at least in the country, with our grand old buildings, we are prone to over-value church gathered and underrate church scattered, but that does not mean the lack of the gathered prayers of God's people is not a great loss to the nation.
So we as church need to find ways to gather as we are scattered, by internet, by phone, by live feed, by chat room, by coordinated prayer, while at the same time delighting in the blessings of finding God wherever we are in the everyday simplicities of life, in the care of needy neighbour, in the coordination of local support. A church cut off from church is not a church cut off from worship, gathered or scattered. All it does is reveal the well-springs of our hearts: do we worship because we can gather in a beautiful building or do we worship because we know the presence of a beautiful God.
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| St Michael's, Beer Hackett in the frost, January 2020 |
Thank you George, well put! And nice pic of St Michaels Beer Hackett too!
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