Structured

I recall that, in the days when I attended worship in the Methodist Church, the steward introducing the morning service would often use the words “There are no additional notices this morning.”  It puzzled me; I wondered, ‘if there’s nothing to say, why bother to mention it?  Thinking further, maybe there is a purpose after all.  I had no idea then, and certainly none now, about what went on behind the scenes, but it seems likely that there was a check-list.  Successive items on this list might be, ‘mount rostrum’; ‘are there any additional notices?’; ‘introduce preacher’.  Put in this context, those words – apparently meaningless of themselves - are a reminder to us that there is a definite structure to worship, a framework that allows flexibility while ensuring that all the important items are covered.

Of course, our whole lives are structured in some way or other from cradle to grave.  Soon after we are born we have inoculations according to a health service record; legislation demands that we attend school between five and sixteen; the government aims that half of us or more will then go on to university; peer pressure and social convention directed us in our early years to join scouts, cubs, brigades, or some other youth organisation.  Then there are the laws of the land which govern our behaviour, discouraging us from theft, violence and breaking the speed limit.  We can’t escape structure in one form or another.

Our spiritual lives, too, conform to a pattern.  We are baptised when we come to faith ... or else as infants, later taking upon ourselves at confirmation the promises made on our behalf.  We meet weekly for worship: the writer to the Hebrews exhorted that the believers should “consider how we may spur one another on towards love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another ...” (Heb. 10:25).  We try to maintain a personal discipline of daily prayer and Bible reading and, if our lifestyle allows, we might also attend a mid-week social or study group. We each play as full a part in the life of the Church as we are able.  If we are called to some specific ministry, or even to ordination, then a prescribed path leads us through the appropriate training to that end.

There is even a structure which we can - and should - apply to our prayer life.  Our Lord gave us a template for our prayers: “This is how you should pray ...”, He said (Matt. 6:9ff).  How often do we chant this template as if it were, of itself, the ultimate prayer and consider our prayers ‘done’?  Instead, we should ponder its various clauses, and expand our prayers according to this recommended spread.

And a final thought, with the great feast of Christmas not far off.  Our Church year is structured, too.  As the seasons unfold, so one celebration logically follows another, each reminding us of some significant aspect of our faith, and together providing a variety of emphases for appropriate worship at each time of year.

So, next time you hear something apparently meaningless - like the announcement of no additional notices - question why this should be; perhaps you will be led to give thanks for God’s gift of a framework for life.