WEDNESDAY, 28 April, 2004

We continue with pieces from “Holy People” by Gordon Lathrop.

Please excuse the early send that is due to an out of town retreat.



Assembly, like all the central materials of Christian worship, like Baptism and Eucharist themselves, involves the transformation of cultural goods. We have ways to meet, ways to be with each other, ways to enter into such a meeting and these ways may differ from culture to culture.

…Christianity receives our meetings. If anything, Christianity intensifies them, reawakening our need for healthy and beautiful assembly. Have we forgotten, in the age of “bowling alone” and electronic, “virtual community,” the exhilarating possibilities of festival, town meeting, parade, pilgrimage, fair, corroboree? Church may still remember something of that communal meaning, larger than the intimate family.



I’m glad he said “church ‘may’ as Lathrop referred to the assembly of Christians – for the assembly may be a place that allows people to be unrelated and unconnected to others. It takes deliberate planning and action to create the interaction and exchanges that may be a part of the time in and around our worship. I can go to a movie with friends but we don’t connect much at all during the movie. Afterward the movie we still have to be intentional about talking and sharing our thoughts and feeling. When we gather within the assembly of the Church, the sacraments (baptism and the meal) are like clowns that try to grab our attention and say “look here”….”look here and see what we are…see what we can be…see how we are met by our God…see how full life can be!” That look at God present among us and for us is the power to transform us in the assembly and in our relating throughout the week.



Connection: How many times during this day are put into a situation when you have the opportunity to be a part of what could be a transforming event, conversation, presence…?



Lord of this time and place, you bring the history of your people to this moment and you invite us to move into the moment to come with all the saints so that our day may continue to be a part of the great unveiling of your gracious Reign. Encourage our life together. Amen.