I've been quite torn between two different churches for the past few months - one being my 'home' church and the other the church I was sent on placement. We were told by our course tutor that it isn't unusual for students to leave their home churches after their placement ends - 'Fair enough' I thought, 'Probably won't happen to me though because I'm familiar with the more traditional worship style and I left all that behind years ago.'
Little did I know how much it was going to hit me!! Now I'm reconnected with the better side of my traditional past as well as enjoying more contemporary worship styles. Each church feeds and grows different parts of me, and I hope I make a worthwhile contribution to each place in return.
The contrast was brought into very sharp focus this evening as I went straight from a service at the ex-placement church to one at my 'home' church. Some three and a half hours of liturgy ranging from BCP to something resembling but not exactly Common Worship and music from old school choral to Chris Tomlin - that really has an impact!
But how I loved it all from start to finish too.
Somewhere during that time I also began to understand something I'd read earlier by Thomas Merton:
'I say YES to all the men and women who are my brothers and sisters in the world, but for this "yes" to be an assent of freedom and not of subjection, I must live so that no one of them may seem to belong to me, and that I may not belong to any of them. It is because I want to be more to them than a friend that I become, to all of them, a stranger.'
Liberating paradox again! To truly belong, we stop seeking to belong.
'These all died in faith, not having received the things promised, but having seen them and greeted them from afar, and having acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. For people who speak thus make it clear that they are seeking a homeland.' Hebrews 11:13-14
No comments:
Post a Comment