Saturday 20 August 2022

Psalm 32:6-11

 Background

Recently while walking my dog in the local park, I began chatting with a group of fellow dog walkers. Over the last couple of years, we have slowly become friends. They all know that I am a Methodist presbyter (I did have to explain what that meant, and they still call me vicar!) so I often get asked questions about church, religion and anything else they think is remotely religious. So I was not really surprised when one of them asked “What is the meaning of life?”

You will agree that is a nice easy question for 7 o’clock in the morning. After a quick joke about it being ‘42’ (that also needed explaining – it's a joke from 'The Hitchhikers' Guide to the Galaxy') we all had a long conversation about the meaning of life. When I was unable to satisfactorily answer the question, I was asked “Then what is the Church for?”

What is the Church for? This is a question that seems to get asked on a frequent basis. Perhaps it is not there to tell people what the meaning of life is, but why does it exist? Although we often talk about the Church being the people and not the building, it is often very difficult to convince people that it is true. The Church is here, as Paul says, to teach the wisdom of God, in its rich variety (v. 10) Now a building cannot teach anyone, but the people (who are the Church of God) can.

Paul writes in 2 Timothy 3:16 that all scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching, so as the Church we need to read and study the scriptures but also, we need to pray and listen. Paul tells us that the mystery of Christ was made known to the apostles through the Holy Spirit, so let us make ourselves available for this so that we can teach the wisdom of God.

 To Ponder:

• 1 Corinthians 12 tells us that there are different gifts and different forms of service. What gift do you have and how can you use them to teach the wisdom of God?
• One final reminder: continue to pray for the person you thought about on Sunday.

 Prayer

Teacher God, show us how to be your Church and how to serve you. Guide us in all we do and give us your wisdom so that we can live the life you want; and teach your wisdom through our thoughts, words and actions. Amen.