Worship
Make this your song of prayer and dedication to God.

Teach me, my God and King,
in all things thee to see,
and what I do in anything
to do it as for thee.

A man that looks on glass
on it may stay his eye;
or, if he pleaseth, through it pass
and then the heaven espy.

A servant with this clause
makes drudgery divine:
who sweeps a room as for thy laws
makes that and the action fine.

This is the famous stone
that turneth all to gold;
for that which God doth touch and own
cannot for less be told.

Sermon on the Mat: Lift up your eyes

The Psalmist calls us to enter God’s gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. But we can’t praise God with our eyes on the ground. To praise God we need to raise our eyes to behold the wonders of his works and lift our hearts to engage with him.

A year or so ago I realised that I spent my time walking around looking at the ground. It wasn’t necessarily to make sure that I didn’t trip over – though that was part of it. I used to play games like walking along the lines or from the edge of one patch to the next. Then I realised that it was making me feel depressed. I made a special effort to raise my eyes and look around – at the flowers in the gardens, the cloud patterns in the sky, the interesting architecture above the shop fronts. Immediately my spirits were raised with my eyes and I started feeling much happier.

A couple of weeks ago I caught a bit of a radio programme called ‘All in the Mind’. Somebody had carried out an experiment with two groups of people. All were asked to go for a 15 minute walk in the country each week. One group were told just that, but the others were instructed to go for an ‘Awe walk’ – they were to look in awe and wonder at whatever they saw. The result? The second group were much happier than the first.

Imagine what impact it would have on our lives if we spent all of our time taking an ‘Awe walk’, thanking God and giving him praise for all we see around us. This is Paul’s prayer for the Ephesians in 1:15-23. Not just that they would see the wonders of God’s creation around them but that they would understand the hope of salvation to which we have been called – the magnificence and splendour of our inheritance. That sounds like inheriting a mansion in wonderful grounds from an unknown great aunt, which in one way it is, for we are promised our place in heaven.

But we don’t have to wait for all our inheritance. We are called not only to wonder at the power of God revealed in the resurrection of Jesus but to realise that the same power is available to us now, already. This is truly awesome (in the original sense of the word).

The full power of God was shown in his raising Christ Jesus from the dead. And then, at the time we call the Ascension, Christ returned to heaven where he rules over all things. That power is available for us to plug into, to use now so that we can do what God wants us to do.

God will work in us and through us if we let him. He will give us wisdom if we seek to learn from him. He will help us to deal with whatever life throws at us, including living through a second lockdown. And he can use us to bring others to an understanding of the saving grace that he offers to everyone.

The Message translation of Colossians 3:1-2 goes like this: ‘If you’re serious about living this new life with Christ, ACT like it. Pursue the things over which Christ presides. Don’t shuffle along, eyes to the ground, absorbed with the things right in front of you. Look up and be alert to what is going on around Christ – that’s where the action is. See things from HIS perspective.

I believe that part of our calling is to rejoice always, praising and thanking God for all that we see and experience. If we try to find the positive things in each situation, that will draw us closer to God and make us more attractive to those we meet.

I began by writing that we couldn’t praise God when looking at the ground. That’s not entirely true. Notice the flowers and the bugs, the earthworms, even the patterns in the pavement – a town on the west coast of Ireland has fossilised sea creatures in its paving stones.

Rejoice in the Lord always, whatever life throws at you, and again I say, REJOICE!

Prayer

God of gold, we seek your glory:
The richness that transforms our drabness into colour,
And brightens our dullness with vibrant light;
Your wonder and joy at the heart of all life.

God of incense, we offer you our prayer:
Our spoken and unspeakable longings, our questioning of truth,
Our serach for your mystery deep within.

God of myrrh, we cry to you in our suffering:
The pain of all our rejections and bereavements,
Our baffled despair at undeserved suffering,
Our rage at continuing injustice.

And we embrace you, God-with-us,
In our wealth, in our yearning, in our anger and loss.
Amen.

Please pray that –

• We may see the glory of God that surrounds us.
• We may feel the power of God at work within us.
• We may show the love of God to those around us.