O love that will not let me go

O love that will not let me go, I rest my weary soul in thee.  I give thee back the life I owe, that in thine ocean depths its flow, may richer, fuller be.

After attending the Parish Communion service at Bath Abbey this morning, I just want to take some time to reflect on the religious life here in Bath.  This is the second service I've attended during my stay here, the first of which was an informal evening service at the Abbey.  After this first experience,  I was struck by how little Jesus was mentioned during the process of worship.  We sang, and listened to a "sermon," but there was really no mention of Jesus's great sacrifice for us, or really any logical reference to biblical passages.  Despite this disappointing first experience, I decided to give the Abbey another chance and attend one of the formal morning masses.
Today's service was very liturgical, a quality I'm fairly used to in a worship service.  There were hymns, responsive readings, etc. and I actually noticed a great deal of similarities in their liturgy and the one that we use at MPC.  However, the sermon still left me feeling undernourished, with no mention of God's saving grace.  His love was discussed a good deal, but not His sacrifice, which really means that they are only telling half of the story.  Communion, or the Eucharist as they call it in their order of worship, is observed every week, and it amazed me how severely ritualistic it was.  Again, no mention of why we partake in communion or the saving grace of Christ.  I decided it was best not to partake in the serving of the Eucharist this morning, but rather spent my time in prayer that the church in Britain may experience the joyous love of Jesus and, in turn, express that joy towards others.
I confess that I have not really felt homesick during my time in Bath, but today I was struck by how much I truly miss my church families both at MPC and Grace Covenant.  I miss the strength of faith and whole-hearted devotion to worship that members of these congregations are not afraid to show.  I miss the loud and joyous singing and the occasional yells of "Amen!" during the sermon.  But most of all, I miss sermons that actually feed the congregation with the words of Christ, always pointing back to the Gospel.  Even as I write this now, I have tears in my eyes - I really wish that the people in the British congregations would be able to experience the kind of church-life I've known since birth.  I feel like I've taken so much for granted, never truly realizing how blessed I am to be able to attend churches like Grace and McLean.
Sorry this is such a long post, but before I wrap up I want to talk a little bit about Lent.  Lent is a widely practiced tradition here in Bath, and for the first time in my life, I've decided to give something up for this six-week period.  What am I giving up?  Chocolate.  I know it is probably the most cliche food to eradicate from my diet, but I had an epiphany about this last week.  As noted in one of my previous entries, my flat in general goes through a lot of chocolate (mainly nutella and dark chocolate digestives), and I've found that when I'm stressed or bored or feeling snacky, it is the first substance I go to in order to calm my nerves or even just my tummy.  And then I thought, what if I prayed instead of turning to food in these times?  So I decided that, since Lent conveniently fell around the time of my epiphany, I would give up eating chocolate as a way of continuing to grow in my relationship with Christ, and learning to rely on Him more and more each day.


Much love to my families at McLean Pres, Grace Covenant, and RUF - I miss you all so much.

O cross that liftest up my head, I dare not ask to fly from thee.  I lay in dust life's glory dead, and from the ground there blossoms red, life that shall endless be.