God, Incognito

Our worship time on Sunday morning was a written response to a specific question. We all sat down with a piece of paper on which had been written only, “Today in the town of David a Saviour has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord.” And then, neatly lettered below was one word: therefore…

This single word, ‘therefore, is where our worship - our response to what God has done - begins. But sitting down with a piece of paper and writing doesn’t look like worship to everyone. That someone might not see this as worship is difficult to grasp for those of us who are familiar with Third Space. In another conversation on Sunday morning I said that we begin our ’service’ at 11:30 and was immediately reminded of something I knew but had simply forgotten - we begin at 11 AM, but we begin in community. People start arriving at 11 or shortly after and, before you know it, there’s a hub-bub of conversation in the room. It’s a great chance to catch up with our friends and it’s a real pleasure to introduce visitors and invite them into a conversation around the coffee pot. At 11:30 we continue through the rest of our Sunday morning. Standing in a circle with coffee in hand may not look like worship either, but I really think it is. The very fact that we’re in church on Sunday morning, and feel some kinship to those we meet with, is also a response to what God has done in our lives.

And our Sunday morning, amidst all the business and stress of the Christmas season, was a quiet, calm, reflective time. We decorated our Christmas tree together, we sang a few Christmas carols a cappella. We worshiped, gently, but powerfully, through our writing exercise, with some lovely music playing softly in the background. The scripture was read. We talked about what we had written. We prayed together. It doesn’t get any better than that - it really doesn’t. It doesn’t look like any big thing. What we do is underwhelming. It takes time to see the beauty of Third Space. It takes time to get past all of our ‘churchey’ expectations to see what is really going on here on a typical Sunday morning. (It took me the better part of a year). Everything about us goes against the norm of a typical evangelical church experience. Our small size allows us to do some really interesting things but there are challenges to being a small church as well - not the least of which is financial.

Why am I talking about all this? Well… this afternoon I was reading the Christmas story in Matthew. I began to wonder what it was like for the shepherds, when they found the stable with Mary and Joseph and the baby Jesus. What did they see as they entered the scene? My guess is that they saw a weary young mother, an anxious father, a baby that looked like any other baby. But this wasn’t just any baby - this was the Christ Child, this was the incarnation. But here’s the question.. at that moment, do you think the Baby Jesus met or exceeded their expectations? An angelic choir announcing that the Son of God is born - that’s a lot of hype. Did they walk away from the stable that night, scratching their heads, wondering what all that commotion was about? Maybe that’s something like us. Maybe there isn’t anything immediately and obviously ’special’ about us here at Third Space. Maybe the extraordinary work of God is unfolding here in a way that is simply understated, gentle, quiet and unassuming, that frustrates our expectations of what church should be. And yet, though it may be difficult to recognize him, here Christ is, among us once again.

I’m not trying to suggest that we’re better than anyone else. What I’m trying to say is just this - I love being a part of this community. In the beginning I was like one of those shepherds. I encountered Third Space and said, “hey, let’s go see what this is about.” Now? There’s nowhere else I’d rather be. Third Space is Peterborough’s best-kept secret. I’d like to see that change. I’d like to share this experience with a lot more people. In the incarnation we see Jesus born as a fulfillment of the Old Testament prophecies, and in reading Matthew’s genealogy this morning I really got a sense that the birth of Christ is a continuation of something God has been doing for a very long time. But there’s also a sense that God is doing something new with the birth of Christ. I hope that in the months ahead we see God creating something new in Third Space. But I hope that the story God’s been telling here doesn’t change either. And my heart’s desire, as I look beyond Christmas into the New Year, is that everything here will change… and everything will remain the same.

And I don’t think that’s too tall an order for God. After all, he’s done it before.