Every act of worship begins with gathering. In the earliest days of the church, Christians would slip quietly into someone’s home to pray and break bread. Later, when worship was made public, ministers would process in, carrying candles and the Gospel book, to show that what was about to happen was something holy.
However simple or formal, the meaning is the same: scattered people are drawn together to become one body in Christ.
We begin by naming the God we worship: “In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.” These words come from baptism, reminding us that we are a people marked and named by God himself.
Then comes the greeting: “The Lord be with you.” And we reply: “And also with you.” This isn’t just polite. In that moment we acknowledge each other as people who carry God’s presence. Strangers become brothers and sisters. A crowd becomes a congregation.
And then, with the Prayer of Preparation, we ask God to cleanse our hearts and open our lives by the Spirit. It’s one of the oldest prayers of the church, prayed here in this country for over a thousand years. Its words are simple but searching: “to whom all hearts are open, all desires known, and from whom no secrets are hidden.”
It’s the reminder we need at the start of worship: we come as we are, with nothing hidden, offering our whole selves – body, mind, and spirit – ready to love and to magnify God’s holy name.