FROM THE VICARAGE STUDY

My dear People,

Our cover photo this month shows people of all ages arriving at the church for a service. Another way of describing their action would be to say that they have come together to worship God. Why should they do this? What should be their motive? In order to answer this, I must begin with an illustration. If you were bathing one day in the sea and got into difficulties and someone dived in and rescued you from drowning, you would be immensely grateful to them. You would be grateful at the time but you would certainly continue to feel that way towards them all your life, refer to them in the highest terms and with the utmost respect, probably write to them every Christmas. But you would feel even more in their debt, if, as a result of saving you, your rescuer (perhaps an old man) became ill and died. It would then seem impossible for you to express adequately your gratitude and great debt, except to show in your manner of life that you were worth saving. It is exactly that sort of situation in which all of you who believe in a further life beyond the grave find yourselves. Christ rescued you but died in order to bring this about. You are hopelessly in His debt. The very least you can do in response to God's saving act is to show unending gratitude, and the only way you can express that is through worship.

That is why Christian worship is so important why in fact it is the chief occupation of our churches. God has done great and marvellous things for us; He has brought us out of the darkness into the light. We should be cold and heartless people if we were not to express sincerely and often our love, devotion and gratitude to Him.

Once think of worship that way, and it is transformed. Surely, too, it puts in proper perspective all the worldly obstacles to regular worship that tend to crop up, especially in the summer months, things like holidays, outings by car to the seaside, the garden, or friends or relations visiting for the day. Somehow worship of Almighty God must come first; it is the highest thing that man is capable of doing; it is the least we can do to repay our great debt to our Rescuer.

Your sincere friend and Vicar,

JOHN GREEN.