Sunday was World Communion Sunday which is the setting aside of worship to join with churches all over the world to gather as the body of Christ and break bread together. In our service, we also had scripture read in Potugese, Mandarin Chinese, French, Spanish, Japanese and English. Instead of a sermon, people in the congregation shared stories of being connected to others around the world and memorable moments of communion.
Many people after worship told me how beautiful the service was. My response was that sometimes we just need to get out of the way and let the Holy Spirit move. Sometimes we fill our time in worship with so many things that we don’t have time to let God speak. I have found that it is sometimes scary to let people have the microphone or speak unexpectedly because I don’t know if what they are going to say is going to be helpful or derail the experience. It is always a risk. But making room for God to speak is always risky because we are pushed in directions that we sometimes never expected. Usually, the children’s time is the only time we allow the possibility of the unexpected.
In our prayer time, we can allow for silence. In our music we can end the accompaniment and just let the words reverberate in the room. Or we can have music with no words that allows us to open ourselves to the moment or close our eyes so that the music can wash over our spirits. In our efforts to offer our best in the time we have allowed, I fear we have scripted worship so tightly that we have left The Holy Spirit’s unexpected no room to appear. We have to get out of the way and allow the risky and awesome breath of God to blow through our spaces. For miracles can happen if we only allow them.