What happens on Sunday morning?

What happens on Sunday morning is not simply for Sunday morning.  However, it is the shape and outline of what God is doing in us, among us, and through us.  It is fount and source of our lives in Christ and it is that which we return to again and again and again -- to know who we are and whose we are in a world that has trouble with things like identity.

The liturgy calls you to your own story.  With its preparation in confession and absolution, the liturgy reminds you who you are.  You have a history before you were born that has contributed to who you are now.  We call that sin -- original sin.  It is the birthmark of our humanity that we did not choose but was chosen for us and under which we live and die.  But it does not end there.  It also answers our story with God's story of redemption and forgiveness and new birth and eternal life.

The liturgy also connects us -- one to another.  We confess as a people united by our common humanity of sin and its death but also united in Christ through the solitary act of God in our redemption and our incorporation into that redemptive act by baptism.  In a world of so many individuals and where "I" is the favorite pronoun, God teaches us to be the "we" of a people who were once no people but now are His people.

The liturgy confronts us with what God has done and bestows upon us, the unworthy and undeserving, the gifts Christ labored in life and death to bestow and which none of us contributed anything nor could we offer anything to add to what He has done.  It is God's story but we are called into that story -- not simply as a people who listen but who hear and hearing believe and believing receive what His Word promises.

Through the liturgy faith is incarnated in us by the power of the Spirit and with that faith comes the capacity to respond with prayers, praise, and thanksgiving.  Apart from this work of the Spirit and the grace of God to engender this faith in us, we would have no response but now, in Christ, we sing and give thanks and offer the sacrifice of praise and bring to Him the tithes and offerings of our grateful hearts and the petitions of a people confident He hears, listens, and acts for our best interest.

The liturgy sends us forth in the world with a purpose.  Though we no longer reflect the world (being in but not of it), we are still here with a purpose and a calling and a vocation in which we live out the new lives Christ has given us in our baptism.  We do not mimic the actions of the pastor on Sunday morning but extend what we have received by bringing the gifts of God to those who do not yet know Him.  We do this with words that make known Christ the Word made flesh.  We do this with acts of mercy that reflect the mercy God has shown to us.  We do this by forgiving the unworthy and undeserving and calling them to repentance.  We do this by showing them where the gifts of God are to be encountered, according to the Lord's own design and institution.

What happens on Sunday morning is more profound than we tend to give credit to it.  It is not about what we do or what we like or what we think God wants us to do or like.  It is about meeting the Lord where He has promised to be found -- in the rich exchange of sinners who meet a gracious God in the means of grace that sign what they do and symbolize what they bestow.  Think about that on your way to Church this morning...