Week Four

Wedding, wine, wings, and worship!

A week of vivid imagery to inspire us as we re-imagine church in the context of God’s time. We contemplate joining together, things being more than the sum of their parts, and generosity.

Do the everyday and extraordinary acts of celebration and worship in our lives give us a glimpse of what ‘all in good time’ could mean for us?

(This material is drawn from the Re-Imagining Church theme.)

Read 1 Corinthians 12: 1-11

Paul describes here individual gifts that are given for the common good. In our churches we each have an individual part to play but in a shared project — we rely on one another. Why are we given different gifts?

How do we balance the contributions of individuals and the needs of the whole community?

Read John 2: 1-11

In contemporary Scottish culture (and in much of the world) church occasions for the last several decades have often been associated with (both fairly and unfairly): cold, restraint, prudishness, and judging others.

Whereas in this reading we see:

- warmth
- excess
- generosity 
- welcome

What would a church directly inspired by the Wedding at Cana look like?

Read Psalm 36: 5-10

The cry of verse 7 is deeply evocative, using romantic and poetic language. The choice of the word ‘wings’ here is striking. Rather than another word such as ‘walls’, ‘fortress',‘shield’, or ‘arms’, why use the word ‘wings’?