Transported to Another Place?
Every year, at Easter, the Classic FM radio station gets its listeners to vote for their favourite pieces of classical music. It’s a great way for them to find out what people who tune in might want to hear in future programmes! But …. the top choices, over several years, are nearly always the same. Mostly this kind of music…
If you’ve heard any of these pieces, you’ll sense that strange otherworldly feel that they each have – not so much emotional music but melody and harmony that seems to take you to a place in the beyond – into a spiritual or eternal dimension. I wonder if that’s why people love these pieces?
Where Does this Feeling Come From?
“For everything there is a season, a time for every activity under heaven. A time to be born and a time to die. A time to plant and a time to harvest …. God has made everything beautiful for its own time. “He has planted eternity in the human heart….” (Ecclesiastes, chapter 3)
This passage from the Bible is telling us that we are, somehow, “wired” to be aware of a realm beyond our normal 5 senses. This is the third, normally ignored, part of our existence – body, mind….and spirit! When we hear the kind of music in the list above, it seems to resonate with that bit of us.
How is this Linked to Church?
Many people who go to church have let this bit of them grow, and have found that it has its ultimate and fullest meaning in the love of Jesus.
The fabulous writer, Professor C S Lewis, expressed this in a children’s book, where the evacuee, Lucy, begins her adventure when she passes through a wardrobe into a dark and snowy wood. The author gives it us as an allegory – Lucy is on the threshold of the magical kingdom of Narnia, but Lewis wants us to know that there is a real spiritual Kingdom we can enter, to know the kindness, the power and unlimited love of the King of Kings, Jesus.
How is it Linked to You?
Of course, you can find the door everywhere. It’s not just limited to churches. (Or wardrobes!) Many of you who receive this magazine have not been to church for ages, for many, many, different reasons, yet you have still known, and experienced, the secret place of God’s love. You still sense the place in the beyond – that spiritual; that eternal dimension.
What’s to be Gained by going to Church?
For me, church is the completion of my sense of the eternal. A place where others join with me to enter into the power of the Holy Spirit. A place where others share their spiritual experiences. A community where we learn from each other, and encourage those who join with us as we walk in the footsteps of Jesus, on the path that leads to eternal life.
An Easier Way to Dip your Toe
Come to the shorter midweek service. These are shorter, little communion services with a brief time of reflection, and lovely friendly people. (And….I’ll be there, at all three… and you know me!)
