Sunday, 15th August 2010

 

Dear Friends                                                                                         

 

Last week’s sermon was entitled “Worry about your Worship” inspired by Psalm 50 and Isaiah 1:10-20.  Both readings record God’s anger at our human tendency to worship the way we worship.  To turn a means into an end in and of itself and to forget that telling God we love God is not the same as actually loving God. 

 

Both readings (Psalm 50:7 and Isaiah 1:10) command us to listen to God’s voice.  For us to listen we must first keep silence.  So, seeking to honour this scripture we decided last week to spend 5min in complete silence after the sermon.  I hope that this will become a permanent part of our worship liturgy. 

 

As we sit in the silence I encourage you to be conscious of your breathing and deliberate about smiling.  This may seem trite, but in actual fact it is an ancient form of prayer/meditation.  The reasoning behind it is as follows: we breathe because God first breathed into us—it is the very origin of our life.  We are alive and this is the greatest of miracles and so we rejoice—we smile.  It is not a smile of happiness, but rather a smile of   gratitude.  Gratitude is the sacrifice that God longs for (Psalm 50:14). 

 

Breathing and smiling, Alan