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Message from Pastor Ann Frerks
February 2012
Preparing Our Hearts and Minds for Worship
God’s beloved people,
When I was growing up, the Sacrament of the Altar (Holy Communion) always concluded with the singing of Simeon’s song (in the King’s English of course!):
Lord, let us now thy servants, depart in peace, according to thy word,
For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, which thou hast prepared
before the face of all peoples,
A light, to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel.
Perhaps it was the archaic language that seemed to lift everything skyward and bathe the space with heavenly light. Or maybe it was that I believed that in the church, I was in the presence of God in a way that I was not in other places. The walls were more than mere brick and mortar; they seemed to mold their inhabitants, give shape to a group of people that shared a common faith, or at least try to. The arches supported the weight of the masses of broken lives while carrying our eyes and spirits to the massive cross that was lifted up so high there was no place in that space from which it could not be seen, which was the point.
We came to church, at least that was what I was taught, to hear and see our salvation, to greet it with songs of praise and stories of old and to taste it and be filled with it so that we might “depart in peace.” This is how it was when I was growing up. What about you? What is your experience?
Recently someone asked the question, “What does it mean to prepare our hearts and minds for worship?” I guess that is for each of us to answer. For me it means turning off the noise that fills my days and my head. It means letting go of the stuff I’ve been hauling around day after day, so that I can be present to Jesus Christ, the living and abiding Word of God who is about to come to me in the announcement of the forgiveness of sins, in scriptures read and sung, and in the Holy Meal.
After worship, I hope that with old Simeon I can depart in peace, forgiven, reconciled, and equipped to share the light of Christ with others.
Pastor Ann
pastorann@trinitylutheran-cda.org
©Trinity Lutheran CDA
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