Tuesday 14 April 2015

The seen and unseen reality of church on Sunday morning

Often when you walk into church on a Sunday morning everyone else looks to have it together.  People are there, they look well presented (whether that means shirt and tie, smart casual, or everyday attire is irrelevant).  It can intimidating to walk into church if you feel that's not you.  If the week has been hard, your heart is breaking, broken, or seemingly shattered beyond repair.  If your marriage is creaking, illness and problem seem to beset everyone around you, work is frustrating on a good day, and the kids seem to be living in open revolt.

But there is an unseen reality that we need to recognise that is present in what we see.  Each of those people who have come to church, to meet with their church family, to hear from God, to sing his praise - or just to listen to others sing if that feels too raw - has come from a world you cannot see as you look at them on a Sunday morning.  They are not hiding it, they haven't put on a mask of happiness, its not a fake, it is that they are determined to meet together because they know they need to.

As we get to know one another we begin to see the unseen reality of Sunday morning that you can't know by just taking a cursory, surface glance at those around you.  As we get to know one another we come to see the story of each and every family.  Each affected by the brokenness of the world, each life impacted by the deceitfulness and destructiveness of sin.  It's there is the couple longing for a child but struggling to conceive but who still smile and welcome each and every child they meet in church.  You don't see it but as you get to know their unseen story you see the grace at work in that welcome.  It's there is the person who is terminally ill but comes week by week without many in the church family even realising how ill they are, who cheerfully takes part, laps up the Bible teaching, and encourages others.  It's there in the person whose extended family is in ruins and who lives with the brokenness and pain of that everyday, dealing with the crises that come up week by week, but who can rejoice in another's joy on a Sunday morning by grace.

One of the problems of suffering is that it can curve us inwards on ourselves.  The antidote is to get to know those around us, to learn to see the unseen story of grace woven into the life of every person who makes it to church on Sunday.  Everyone living with a present experience of the reality of living in a broken world yet knowing that God by grace is gradually writing their story for his glory, as they live trusting in his loving Fatherly care.

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