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Community blog

Here's the Conversation of St Aidan's Church Community

God’s Grammar (By Lynne McCarthy)

7/6/2020

 
The Lord be with you.   And with your spirit.

How often have we heard and spoken this call-and-response in church services, perhaps at the end of our small group prayers, when praying with the Book of Common Prayer or the Book of Alternative Services? 

[An aside: Can you stand a little English grammar?  (Is that a groan? Eye-rolling? Bear with me, please!)] 

 The subjunctive – big word, this. Its function has faded as we reinvent (or ignore) grammar, but we use it without even being aware.  It implies, this big subjunctive thing locked in the little word BE, our deepest longings and desires and imaginations.  Weirdly, it can also express doubt. How did this sliver of doubt sneak into -- a prayer?  Check out the Psalms; look at a few characters in the Gospels!

Depending on our mood (and the subjunctive is a “mood”!) we express doubt, desire, need. In our context, a mutuality lives in this blessing. The one who invokes is in the same place as the ones who reply.

It also implies something desired, demanded, necessary. Isn’t that what the Lord is about? He’s necessary when we are frightened, lonely, weak and yes, doubting; He’s desired as we come to know Him more deeply through prayer, the Word, the witness of others, from those further along in the faith than we. He allows us to ‘demand’, to keep knocking in our need. He fulfils the hidden, unexpressed longings of our hearts. He is beyond our imaginations; don’t we know “His power…  can do more than we ask or imagine” (Eph 3:20)?

Maybe the subjunctive offers a majesty, a serious awareness, an immensity -- more than our simple everyday grammar allows. 

We respond to the blessing from the gamut of emotions He gave us. He hears and assures us that, yes, He is truly and absolutely with us, in Spirit (His), in spirit (ours). His being -- with us! -- is utterly hugely true.
​

In responding, we in turn bless the one who blessed us: May our wonderful God always be with you, as deeply and truly as you’ve called Him to be in ours.

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St Aidan’s Anglican Church
274 Campbell Street | Winnipeg, MB R3N 1B5
Phone: 204.489.3390 Email: staidans.churchoffice@gmail.com
  • Home
  • Worship Online
  • The Preachers Blog
  • Easter Services
  • Bible in a Year
  • About Us
  • Contact Us
  • The Re-Gathering
  • Youth
  • Cords
  • Prayer Requests
  • Request Pastoral Care
  • Give
  • Grocery Pick Up
  • Statement of Faith
  • Video Archive
    • 2023 Videos
    • Real Lives
    • 2022 Videos
    • 2021 Videos
    • 2020 Videos
  • Sermon Audio Archive
    • 2020 Sermons
    • 2019 Sermons
    • 2019 Sermon Series >
      • Gospel Centered Eternities November 2019
      • The Real Joy of Easter - Holy Week 2019
    • 2018 Sermons
    • 2018 Sermon Series >
      • Gospel Centred Church Spring 2018
      • A Gospel Shaped Church Fall 2018
    • 2017 Sermon Series >
      • The Servant King Christmas 2016
      • The Saviour King Lent 2017
      • The Victorious King Holy Week 2017
      • The Living King Easter 2017
      • The Brother King Fall 2017
      • Worship the King Advent 2017
    • 2016 Sermon Series >
      • Real Obedience Lent 2016
      • Unity of the Church
      • The Servant King Christmas 2016
    • 2015 Sermon Series >
      • Real Gifts 2015
      • Real Mission 2015
      • Mission Discerned
    • 2014 Sermon Series >
      • Real Church 2014
      • Real Lives 2014
    • 2013 Sermon Series >
      • Real God 2013
    • Sermon Archive From 2014 - 2017
  • Christianity 101
  • The Psalms Blog
  • Bible in a Year
  • The Re-Gathering