Sunday is a fun day

The day began with an 'early' Communion and ended with a Taizé Communion and, sandwiched in between them, was another Communion and an Epiphany service - and as a result the day just flew past in the blink of an eye. Looking at the clock, day aone, I realised that it had been, almost the toe minute, twelve hours from beginning to end and yet it didn't feel like it at all.

I was grabbed by a member of the parish a few weeks back and given a ticking off about how it wasn't hard work but long hours that killed us. But the problem is that each of us has a different idea of what constitutes 'long' I guess.

Today was about Christ becoming known to the world as the Magi come knocking with their gifts but unless we, the Church, are out there telling the world about Him, how will they hear or have that 'scales falling from the eyes' moment? We have a task before us indeed - and I wonder if we are doing it as well as we should?

Lord, this has been a great day; one in which I have been privileged to open the Scriptures and celebrate the risen Christ, and I thank you for it. But it has been a funny day. An unsettled day too as each of the Communion services were slightly out of kilter: the service sheets were wrong in one (Praise the Lord I had a set from elsewhere in the car), the means by which the candles could be lit were non-existent (must learn to carry a lighter), the order sheets had totally vanished in another service (rushed and printed a new set!!), a page was missing from another service (but the memory had the words on the internal paperwork), one of the people leading was missing, and ... well you get the picture I'm sure.

In former days I would have regarded the bumps in the road as 'attack' whereas now I just regard it as mere organisational tremors. But as I reflect in a most excellent day I am pondering whether these bumps might not still be attack. OK! We managed to pretty seamlessly deal with all but the candles, but these things which take my eyes off of the important and cause me to break step, who does it work for? This has made me realise how lax I have become at praying before, and for, a service and lulled me into a sense of false reliance upon others - and the more weak links we introduce, the more likely it is that something will break down.

Lord, help me find the balance between collegial and shared and abrogation. Help me to rejoice in the joy of having so many people involved in the service (we had eight different voices making our main service run yesterday - and it was brilliant) but not forget my duty to ensure that it flows well. Help me to train, equip, release and inspire those around me - and also not forget that sometimes it's the bumps that help us to climb. A shiny polished slope is destined to keep us in the shallows rather than take us to the heights!

One of the joys today was found in small numbers - for in one place with our 'special' service on offer we barely filled a quarter of the building and yet, talking to people afterwards, I realised that what we had done was immensely valuable as it made Church accessible for those who came to a place where it might not have been expected to be.

Church in unusual places - sounds like the New Testament times, doesn't it?

Lord for the needs, the pain, the confusion and the bumps - I thank You.

For the joy of working with others - I give you praise.

Give me patience, grace and love for the day ahead - be with me every step of the way, just as You were today :-)

Symbols, Colours and Objects - Two of the things we do

I've had a couple of interesting questions regarding symbols and objects. The first relates to candles on the altar (table) and what they signify because when they asked whether the candles signified anything they were told they were there because 'Jesus is the light of the world'.

Now I'm probably going to get into some heavy weather with some out there but as far as I know (and that's probably little) the reason we have candles (two or more) on the table (altar) is down to the fact that without them it's pretty difficult to read the service when it's dark! Basically candles were lit for purely practical reasons BUT of course it doesn't take long before someone adds some spiritual or other context to the blesséd things and they become part of something they were never intended to be.

I recall a lecture on liturgy, worship and the things we do in our services where someone read out something about the candle being a trinity where the candle, the wick and the flame represented God, the believer and the Holy Spirit. In the same lecture we were told how, with regard to the epistle and Gospel sides of the table (altar) - which (looking at the congregation) is apparently left and right respectively - the candle was lit on the Gospel side first (that's reversed for the person lighting because they do it from the front!). To make it more interesting, if you were into multiple candles you'd light them left then right and then repeat for as many pairs of candles you had (extinguishing them in the reverse order).

The only candle that represents the light of Christ remains the Paschal candle.

The second 'interesting' question relates to adding water to the wine when we celebrate the Eucharist (Communion). When asked the person asking me was told that it's all about symbolism as it speaks of the blood and water that flowed from Jesus' side when He was pierced by the spear.

Sadly I think this might be one of the great sounding explanations that fall just a little short of the reality and yet has made it into law! I know I was told that when I first realised the bloke up the front was watering down the red stuff - wasn't him fiddling the books or making the wine go further after all - there was this cool sounding spiritual explanation.

Truth is that it was the Greek custom for water and other stuff to be added to the wine and Israel having been part of Hellenistic and then Roman culture had been exposed to such practices and also made them theirs. It was what they did. BUT one of the reasons I was given (accompanied by a defence of the Eucharist by one of the Early Christian Fathers+) stated that it wasn't some licentious booze up (my words) but something else and that this could be demonstrated by the fact that the wine was watered down. Another explanation I had came from an RC friend who spoke of bread, wine and water forming a trinity and then went on (at length) to explain how it brought God, man and Church into a oneness - have to say I wasn't convinced and so find myself going along with the contemporary practice of the time and the 'not boozing' scenarios. But I'm happy to have someone who knows lead me further forward.

So there we are  - two questions and two (as brief as I can be) answers - a ten minute splurge - hopefully something sound and of worth here.

Pax