Worshipping back in Church
Come back to church...come for the first time.
Everyone is welcome in our churches.
Closing our churches during the pandemic is, with hindsight, widely seen as an unecessary act of caution, and even as damaging to the wellbeing of the nation. I wish we'd not done it. But now we know, it won't happen again. Church is open for good.
What has become clear since the dreaded lock-downs, is that more and more people have had time to think about the purpose and meaning of life, have become as interested in healty minds as they once were about healthy bodies. So many people have begun to explore faith and started to try church. But how do you take that first step?
In the UK census, given the opportunity to be honest about their beliefs, fewer and fewer people have put Christian down as their faith, preferring to be honest and say no faith than tick a box for smething they don't really follow. I for one think that's a good thing. Honesty is a good place to start.
It would not be unsual to have never been to church, never been in a church, never had a relative who was a churchgoer, never learned about Christianity in school, never sung a hymn, never read the bible. You are not alone. You are welcome.
So what is church about?
Church is two things: a place where followers of Jesus meet to learn about his teaching and pray to God, and the word used for a group or groups of Christians who meet regularly to do the same wherver they are. Sometimes that's just two or three people. But the world-wide church is made up of 2.5billion Christians.
Not all Christian groups or churches are identical. We don't all subscribe to the exact same beliefs. But at the core there will be a handful of things we all agree about: That there is one God, and our experience of God is as the Father/Creator of the universe; as Jesus the 'Son of God' , and as the Holy Spirit.
The name Christian, comes from the the ancient Greek word for 'The annointed one' or 'The Messiah'.
Most Christians believe that Jesus who lived among humanity some 2000 years ago, was crucified by people who hated him and was seen to have died on the cross, but who after three days in a tomb was seen alive again. After several more weeks Jesus left his followers alone and said that the Holy Spirit would come to gide them to continue his work and share his teaching. And that they continued to do and pass on to generations after them right up until today.
At the heart of his message were a handful of simple ideas and principles. Firstly, that we should have a personal relationship with God, who we can think of as a parent, and we should worship God with our whole hearts. The second was that we should love one another, even people who don't like us, loving everyone as we'd like to be loved ourselves. And thirdly, practice forgiveness, because nobody is perfect and we all mess up from time to time. Theres a whole bunch of examples in his teaching and tips on how to do it because it's actually not that easy, but that's about it.
The amazing thing is that once you practice what Jesus teaches with other Christians, life just seems to be better. Stuff that bothered you melts away. People you try loving, love you back (mostly) so you love them some more. And little by little you help change the world so it's a bit more like the idea we have of a heaven, but right here, right now.
And the last thing to mention is that, when we reach the end of our mortal life...as we all must some day... Jesus taught us one more thing, that by following his way of living we can also follow his way to a new life beyond death by reaching God and being with him in peace for eternity... or the day that God chooses to raise everything to new life. And that's hugely comforting.
Contact
The Vicarage
Great Hormead
Buntingford
Hertfordshire
SG9 0NT
01763 289258