Last week - in the church notices, through email and verbally - all of us were invited to wear our “work clothes” to church this Sunday morning.
Why? Because all of us are engaged in a variety of “work” during each week …. whether it is paid employment, voluntary work inside or outside the home, we all “do stuff”, so we were invited to wear something that symbolises that work.
Why? Because Christians are in danger of a heresy that separates the spiritual from the everyday. Wearing our “work” clothes stands against this heresy and affirms God’s interest in every moment, in every part of our lives.
Why? Because it is part of worship. In the words of Gerard Manly Hopkins;
“It is not only prayer that gives God glory but work. Smiting on an anvil, sawing a beam, whitewashing a wall, driving horses, sweeping, scouring, everything gives God glory if being in his grace you do it as your duty. To go to Communion worthily gives God great glory, but a man with a dung fork in his hand, a woman with a slop pail, give him glory too. He is so great that all things give him glory if you mean they should.”
----- poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, in The Principle or Foundation
As a way of Opawa further growing in this area, this week we are commencing a three week course; Where’s God on Monday? It promises to equip and inspire you in serving God in everyday work.
The course is running at two different times (you choose one);
Wednesdays 7.30-9 pm (2, 9, 16 August) or Saturdays 4-5:30 pm (5, 12, 19 August)