A vicar's musings

I've blogged before about the vicar in the village where I used to live and his column in the monthly village mag. It must be so hard to come up with a sermon every week, and an idea for a column. This month the vicar rails against Sunday-morning flea markets (they are called car-boot sales in England) for cutting into his customer base:

"Car boot sales are a way of focusing a large group of people in one place to recycle still useful but unwanted domestic items that previously would have been thrown away. Car boot sales are often held in the grounds of schools and other community buildings, or in grassed fields or car parks. Usually they take place on weekend mornings, usually Sundays.

So “car boots” are most often a Sunday morning gathering. Just like church they have a regular congregation together with some visitors! The parallels are numerous - as we have seen - but then so are the differences. This is not to criticize car boots or those who go to them, but simply to compare these two Sunday morning gatherings. Let me mention 4 points of contrast:

We have discovered real treasure in the Lord Jesus Christ and we want to help one another to know him better. We are not ‘recycling unwanted items’!

We are here to share in the eternal word of God which dwells among us richly. We are not dealing in whatever anyone happens to have to have to hand. We don’t make our own truth like the car boot participant makes their own market.

We are a gathering brought into existence by the Holy Spirit of God. The local church is called God’s Temple in which the Holy Spirit dwells. It is not just a human gathering.

We meet to give not to get. We want to tell people the message of the love of God who loved the world so much that he gave his one and only Son to rescue us from sin and death.

So there it is - we have a choice. On Sunday mornings we can either ‘recycle unwanted items’ or we can come to know Christ in whom are all the treasures of the knowledge of God. Please note that I am not saying that there is anything
wrong with Car boots - they perform a useful function. Nor am I implying that Christians should not attend them - except when church is on of course! But I am saying that we have something infinitely better on offer. It’s here, every Sunday, at 10.00 am."