April 9 – Bring

They told me to bring fresh flowers on Easter morning. We have a bare wooden cross standing in the sanctuary now for the season of Lent. It has a purple cloth draped over it. Maundy Thursday, we will drape a black cloth over it. But after that, they explained, it will be covered with some kind of netting. Easter morning, as people arrive for worship, they will bring fresh flowers from their gardens to plant on the cross. By the time worship begins, the cross will be covered with beautiful, colorful flowers.

Right now, I have some lovely flowers growing right outside my window, but I am afraid they will be gone by Easter. If so, I hope I will find something else, because I want to bring something to contribute to this tradition. It is a wonderful act of community. You could say it is an act of liturgy.

Liturgy is, of course, the work of the people. It is our offering to God, and it is essential. Worship is not a performance on a stage by the professionals. It is not a passive spectator sport – it is participatory.

So what do we bring, on any given Sunday, to worship?

Well, aside from something for the offering plate (ahem), I would say we bring our best selves. I have been thinking about what that means. Today in Bible study we enjoyed a lively conversation about it. Some believe that you take extra care with your appearance and dress to show how much you value worship. Others scoff at that and say how you dress is unimportant, all that matters is what’s inside of you.

I think that real worship involves allowing what is inside of you to be shown on the outside. If you have goodness inside of you, show it. Show others the welcome you have for them, the care you have for them, the love you have for them.

But it also means allowing your brokenness to show, because we all have that inside of us too. And the only hope there is for healing that brokenness is to bring it to God. I once asked a congregation to bring their broken stuff to church. We all have some broken stuff lying around at home. Bring it in, I said, and make it an offering in worship. So we collected all sorts of broken things: broken glasses, broken cups, broken jewelry. The promise we held before us was that God will take our brokenness and make something new out of it.

We gathered together all the brokenness and made it into a cross, which now hangs in the church. Each one can look at it and see what was once their own brokenness, now transformed.  

Bring all of yourself to God. Bring it. Bring fresh flowers to express the joy of the resurrection. Bring your songs of lament, or thankfulness, or hope. Bring your talents, bring your love and generosity. And bring your brokenness.

Bring it all to the Lord. Because all of this is only something because of what God can do with it.