In case you ever wondered..

God is really really good!

Having faffed, footled and generally avoided anything productive for most of Saturday, I managed to put together something for OpenHouse before bedtime - which left the minor challenge of creative evening worship largely unaddressed, little time to pursue it and a deep and depressing certainty that whatever I did there would probably be
a)no congregation whatsoever at OpenHouse (school holidays and flood aftermath, so I knew nearly all our regulars would be elsewhere) and
b)nobody really keen on participating in funky meditations with pebbles and candles at Evening Prayer.

You'll have seen the next bit coming, won't you?
It's only me that fails to, time and time again.

5 assorted families at OpenHouse, who really enjoyed the Transfiguration picnic in the churchyard (it did make sense, honest guv) and lingered chatting for ages afterwards...
and then lots of positive comments about the evening worship - in which everyone got involved with no demur at all. One lady with whom I've had little conversation over three years now came out wreathed in smiles saying "Brilliant", which is clearly something for my rainy day "kingdom box".

The thing that knocked me out personally was reading the Trevor Dennis story "Transfiguration" just before I invited the congregation to light candles
"as a silent prayer not only that our eyes may be open to recognise God’s presence in the world, but also of our longing to become reflections of his love and his glory, agents of his kingdom"....
One of the churchwardens took a candle and taper to a rather decrepit lady who was clearly not going to make it to the altar - and as I watched them, it was absolutely real. Both of them were lit up with that light of God's presence that the whole service celebrated.

Then together we affirmed our faith, using these words from Dorothy McRae-McMahon, whose work is always a joy - and it was all really rather wonderful
(photo courtesy of HG studios - with grudging permission!)

God spoke light into the void
And the light is in our hands against the darkness.
God clothed the world with sky
And we ride upon the wind
And breathe among the leaves.
God gifted us with earth and with water in between.
We dig and float and drink and grow
And know the power of earth and sea.
We paint and sing and work and dance in company with God.
We share the earth with all that is
In harmonies of warm and cold,
In green and desert, crowd and lone,
We feel the pain, we feel the joy.
God is our father and our mother,
Christ is our brother,
The Spirit is within us.
We celebrate our sharing in the recreating of the world.

I wish I could stop being surprised when it "works"....Since God is always longing for us to come closer, I really shouldn't be that surprised when God honours even our more faltering self conscious attempts. God doesn't want us to "fail" at worship - why do I seem to expect that we might? It really isn't all down to me.