Pastor Eric's sermon

Yesterday I went to my friend Eric's Lutheran church where he is pastor. It was great to see him in
action again presiding at a service which has the same liturgical format as a Catholic Mass, but a little more informal. The most touching thing is that he doesn't preside from a presider's chair at the front, but its in the front row with his wife and small daughters. It makes  me think about our married deacons and how we can make space for them to worship with their families as well as minster at the altar.

Eric is a great preacher. He preached on the feeding of the 5000 and referred to the the common idea that God invites our cooperation in his work. But he did it so well. He made the scripture account alive, painting a picture of the scene and emphasising that Jesus didn't push the disciples out of the way saying "step aside, I've got this covered I' m going to do a miracle". He told them to "give the people something to eat yourself", and then multiplied what  they found.

He then applied it to the life of the church with a great image. He asked us to think about the ways in which the church is like an orchestra, talking about different roles and working in harmony of each them. The twist was in saying that while he as pastor might correlate to the conductor of the orchestra, asking who in the church is the orchestra? While we immediately thought of the musicians and servers and official ministries, said that we, the whole congregation are the orchestra. We are not the audience. Who in the analogy is the audience then? Seattle. Or in our case, Kincumber, or wherever we are. As a church we live our Christian lives, witness and serve, for the benefit of the world, not just ourselves, so that, as in the Acts of the Apostles, people might say "see how they love each other" thereby see Christ at work.

We also went to Mass in the evening (Eric's wife is Catholic, and they go to both churches). The homily was all theologically true and quoted Pope Francis. But it was remote, aloof, it had no story, no illustration, no hook, and I've already forgotten what it was about.