Christ’s love moves the world

I feel at home in the school setting. In South Africa in the eighties many
congregations met in the schools, both for youth meetings and services. 

Once a month a group of Christians worship in a school canteen in Uppsala. It is not common in Sweden, that members of the Lutheran Church (Church of Sweden) use school facilities. Church of Sweden was a state church for centuries and there are Church buildings almost everywhere.

In this area, however, the Church was demolished. Saint Olof’s Church was built in 1983 but due to financial constraints in the Parish, it only lasted until 2008. Before that a group of parishioners volunteered to continue with Sunday services. The first two years they did so every Sunday but since 2005 once a month. I am part of a group of ordained priests who take turns to preach and preside. Likewise organists come there on a voluntary basis to accompany the congregation in the hymns.

The link with the Congregational Council is very good. The chairperson is part of the initiative. The basis however are ordinary church members who come there early in the morning to move tables and chairs, put altar cloths on a table, decorate it with flowers, and prepare coffee and cookies for the fellowship after the service, just to mention a few examples.

Today we focused on Jesus’ baptism. In the choir I belong to we have sung an old Christmas Carol, which I used as a kind of structure for the sermon. The song is a Cornish Carol from the 17^th Century, probably based on a much older medieval mystery play.

Tomorrow shall be my dancing day

It consists of fourteen verses and unfortunately – although not surprisingly – some contain anti-Semitic material. The version we sang in our choir – with music by John Gardner – only has the four first verses. They are fine. The reason for using the song for my sermon was the fourth verse. About Jesus’ baptism:

Then afterwards baptized I was;

The Holy Ghost on me did glance,

My Father’s voice heard from above,

To call my true love to my dance.

The song thus combined the Christmas theme with Jesus’ Baptism, which our lectionary does. I also like the idea of Jesus inviting us to dance. This idea is not unusual. There is a modern song named

The Lord of the Dance

Sidney Carter wrote this song in 1963. He might have been inspired by the older song.

When I prepared the sermon I saw a post on Facebook. Marianne Ejdersten, WCC Communication director, posted another song text. Well known song and hymn writer, Per Harling, has written a song for the upcoming 11^th General Assembly of the WCC. The text is based on the theme:

Christ’s love moves the world to reconciliation and unity

Well, I thought: if Christ’s love moves us – couldn’t that be a description of a dance? If Jesus is the Lord of Dance?

I asked both Marianne Ejdersten and Per Harling if the song could be used this morning and the answer was yes. Maybe it was the first time it was sung in a Swedish Church setting. I don’t know. It became obvious that a Church Service in a school canteen in Uppsala is as much at the centre of the World Council of Churches as the WCC Assembly Planning Committee meeting in Cyprus. 

So, we were happy to be part of the preparation of the 11^th General Assembly of the World Council of Churches, by singing this song in Uppsala: