Sacred Vessels

— Midweek Meditations:
thoughts, inspiration and encouragement
from ACF community members —

‘Do you love anyone enough to give them your last Rolo?’ is an advertising slogan that will be immediately familiar to everyone of a certain age from the UK. The advert itself featured a sketched young couple sitting on a park bench talking to the artist as he finished off the scenery around them. It turns out that the young woman has chocolate – a packet of Rolos – and her boyfriend rather pointedly comments that they are his favourite. After she tells him that she only has one left, she drinks in his hang-dog expression and says that he can have it anyway. Cue a very memorable voice-over…

The reason I mention this is that the large copper vat in which Rolos were once actually made now has a very different job: it is the font in Norwich cathedral (see image above). Still a vessel, instead of holding hot rich toffee or melted chocolate it now holds water for baptism.

The rest of the cathedral was designed and built, by architects and craftsmen, for worship. A product not only of the mind but of physical skill and hard work. This skill and hard work must also have been seen in the chocolate factory which originally surrounded the first life of the font as a vat. The change in setting from factory floor to church reminds me that worship should not only be thoughtful and personal, but physical and productive. It is interesting that Paul encourages us into this very physical form of faith as he begins to close his letter to the Romans:

Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship.

Romans 12:1

Bring worship, he says, into all aspects of your life: your work, your friendships, your family. Offer your everyday life as worship; liturgy is wonderful, but your actions should be as well. Also interesting is how Paul continues:

Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.

Romans 12:2

Here, Paul’s message could be that transformation doesn’t mean abandoning ones essence but rather redirecting it towards a higher purpose, just like the chocolate vat. Here we see a symbol of a community’s ability to see potential in the seemingly workaday and mundane, of how faith can bring about profound changes in purpose and identity, turning us all into instruments of divine grace.

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The ACF Midweek Meditations
are written by a diverse group of our church members with the intention to seek God’s fingerprints in our lives. They range from somber to humorous and are inspired by all facets of live and faith. Written by ordinary people from all walks of life, they reflect a wide range of Christian backgrounds and spiritualities.

Each week’s text portrays the individual viewpoint of its author. They might not always resonate with everyone, and are not meant to be understood as representing the Anglican Church Freiburg as a whole. Yet, as a church that is aiming to ‘Build a Community of Grace’ we seek to practice learning from and listening to one another.

We pray that these humble ponderings add a small spark of blessing to your week.

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