• Most of us assume we have certain natural giftings common to humankind, among them an innate understanding of what love is; how to identify it, offer it, receive it. It’s only when we take seriously that God alone is love, and we fall radically short of the glory of God, that we begin to think of love as something we must learn slowly, carefully, even painfully. So it is with worship. We tend to think anyone can show up in church and worship. But worship is a craft that involves the reshaping of our hearts over time, even decades. It’s in this spirit that we offer the Sunday evening hymn sing. It’ll be an enjoyable evening of food, fellowship and singing. But our deeper purpose is to learn to open our hearts and offer ourselves as living sacrifices. A high calling, and not one that comes naturally. Join us, take the next step in learning to worship.
• A few weeks ago I stood with Lisa and my son Luke in the grand Basilica Cathedral in St. Louis looking at a replica of Michelangelo’s Pieta thinking, “this is the problem.” A physically imposing Mary is depicted embracing a frail, deceased Jesus. Her back straight and broad, she appears to have no problem holding the body of a man in his prime and presumably much larger than she. There is of course no record of this in Scripture, but more troubling to me is the message in Mary’s obvious physical dominance (even her hands are bigger than his), never mind the fact that she is alive and Jesus is dead.• Imagine the Pieta relative to the first paragraph of the book of Hebrews, an account of Jesus’ coming, in the fullness of time, as the exact and exquisite representation of the glory of God. It is Jesus, the incarnate Son, who “upholds the universe by the word of his power,” presumably Mary included. It is Jesus who has always held, and will continue to hold, you and me until that day he returns to consummate history and take us with himself into a restored creation. It is Jesus whose cross and resurrection are now the center of history, and whose return will bring about the conclusion of all we know of material reality. He alone is King of kings and Lord of lords, the greatness of whose government and peace shall have no end. Though we cannot now see him, we love him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory. And if by some astounding grace we were to have a vision of him, glorified, ascended, and seated at the right hand of the Father, we as our brother John would fall on our faces as though dead. No, the real Mary, were we to fall down and worship her, would say to us just what Peter said to Cornelius: “stand up, I am only human myself.” Or even better the angel of Rev. 22: “Do not do that! For I am a fellow servant with you… worship God!”
Pastor Eric