Liturgy: Inhabiting the Story of God
Sending Out
Lord, send us out to live and work for your glory.
In the power of your Holy Spirit. Amen.
As our worship gathering ends we leave and go back to our homes, our communities, our workplaces and schools. We return to the daily rhythms of life—commuting to work, changing our children’s nappies, doing our homework, playing sport, eating meals together.
But the question is, will our gathered worship make any difference to the rest of our lives? Will Sunday affect the rest of the week? Because the sending out gives us a clear message—we are not finished worshipping. We have been shaped, encouraged and challenged by what we have participated in. We have met with God, heard him speak and shared a meal with him. But now our gathered worship must produce scattered worship. The sending out is a proclamation that what we do Monday through Saturday matters to God and matters ultimately. Our family life, our jobs, our hobbies, our friendships—all are an opportunity to worship God and help others respond to God’s call to worship him.
People sometimes speak of a ‘sacred/secular divide’, as if some activities like praying, reading the Bible, going to church or singing are more spiritual or worshipful than others. But the divide is not between sacred and secular, it’s between true worship and false worship, and saying the sending out each week trains us in this. Will we be driven by the opinions of our bosses or by the only opinion that ultimately matters, that of our heavenly Father? Will we be selfish and isolated with our home and resources or generously show hospitality like God does? Will we speak words that tear people down or graciously build them up and speak of Jesus Christ?
What happens in church (as we gather) cannot possibly stay in church, because the whole worship service has also been training us for life. God who calls us to gather in worship now sends us out to worship him and make him known everywhere.[1]
All this may sound very hard. But we are sent out with God’s blessing, in his power. We have his Spirit in us, a privilege which only Jesus deserves. By Christ’s obedience, death and resurrection on our behalf we share in this privilege too. The Spirit gives us words to speak, he empowers us to live godly lives, and he gives us gifts and creativity through which we can serve others.[2] The blessing of God through the Spirit is a sure sign that we are God’s children—he loves us and accepts us and is proud of us as our Father.[3] With that confidence and power we can go and worship him in all of our lives.
And we go out together. Even though we are only all physically together in our Sunday worship gathering, we are still the body of Christ all the time—and so we say these words of sending out together. God has given us one another to support each other, in prayer, in words of encouragement—so that in everything we can worship Christ in Spirit and in truth.[4]