Introduction

Let us consider the way we move from worship to mission as the service ends.

Beginnings and endings are important. Just as we prepare for worship in a shared silence and the entrance of the scripture, so we prepare for mission by receiving the blessing of God and hearing the invitation to be of service.

A point of transition

Worship is a continual movement: we are gathered to hear and receive the word of God and we are sent to pray for and act in the world. We gather around the scripture and the table and in both we are met by the risen Christ who calls us to follow and to remember him and who sends us out in the power of the Spirit to share what we have received.

At the end of out worship together, the words of dismissal remind us that:

The doors are open;
Christ has entered his world.

and invite us to

Go, therefore, to meet him and serve him
in friend and in stranger.

We seek God’s blessing on ourselves and all creation, and in the faith that God is good we go to do the will and work of God.

The blessing and dismissal are not empty words; they are a call to mission in the power of the Spirit.

What follows?

If we truly desire God’s blessing, we must be ready to be a blessing and take a blessing to others. In our worship we meet with God who speaks to us through the word and at the table. What follows is our obedience.

Like the disciples, we cannot stay on the mountain. We have to return to those in need and minister Christ to them.

How we gather and how we go reflect what we believe about God. If in our gathering we talk of everything except God, it is not unlikely that as we go we will do likewise. If we gather with hearts and minds ready to receive God, we will go ready to share the good news.

The song of Simeon

When elderly Simeon enters the temple, he is looking for what has been promised. An infant child is brought to him for blessing, and suddenly he sees the answer to his prayers. God speaks and Simeon answers. Simeon’s song (Luke 2.29-32) is traditionally called the Nunc Dimittis (the first two words in Latin of his prayer). He spoke it as an acceptance of his homeward call; we use it to return to our busy world in peace – or, better, shalom: the peace God gives is wholeness and health, well-being and harmony. Such a shalom is never just an individual experience; it is the peace of God for all people, passing our understanding, and establishing God’s reign on earth as in heaven.

Such a prayer is our summons to be God’s people in the world. Let us go in peace!

Further Thinking

As you leave worship, do you use the blessing and dismissal to focus upon someone you will meet or something you will do in the the week that follows?

The word ‘mission’, ‘dismissal’ and ‘missionary’ all have the same Latin root from the word meaning ‘send’. Does this make any difference to the way you think about the end of worship?

How could we make the blessing and dismissal clearer?

Abbey Baptist Church, Abbey Square, Reading. RG1 3BE   Tel: 0118 957 2197