Thursday, March 06, 2008

Not sure how to write about this morning, since superlatives are very trying for everyone else.
However, this was my last Little Fishes as worship leader, and I'd been given the helpful theme "Bread"so I determined to make the most of this opportunity.

We spread a cloth on the floor in the chapel and sat round it, mothers, fathers, grandmothers, and carers - and those so-loved children.
We lit the altar candles, poured out the wine and talked and sang about endings and beginnings, and about the continuity of God's love no matter what.

"God's love is like a circle, a circle big and round, For when you draw a circle no ending can be found
And so the love of Jesus goes on eternally, forever and forever, God's love for you and me"
I told them the story of that Passover meal when Jesus gave his friends the most precious reminder of God's constant presence with them. We sang our thanks
"All good gifts around us are sent from heaven above, Then thank the Lord, oh thank the Lord, for all his love" and then I broke the bread.
"Jesus told his friends to think of him whenever they did this, and he would be with them...That no matter what happened next, they were each of them loved and precious to God"
As I broke the roll, the children clustered around me...so eager, so excited you would think they had never been offered bread before. I couldn't help but contrast their delighted enthusiasm with the decorous lines that form in the chancel Sunday by Sunday...I gave each of them a precious fragment
"God loves Isaac...God loves Amy...God loves Sienna....Fiona...Connie...."
The adults passed around the cup of wine, sharing it when it felt right with the children ...an elder sister offered it with great seriousness to her younger sister...
I'd expected it to be sad, but it wasn't sad at all.
Rather it was deeply deeply joyful.
Truly
Holy Communion. Thanks be to God!

3 comments:

more cows than people said...

wow... it sounds so holy and beautiful. thank you. you wrote it well.

Unknown said...

Feels like being there. Can't wait to be with *you*!

Grace thing said...

wow. that was very moving and beautiful to read.