Redeem the Time: Make a Holy Place

For many of us, this Sunday will be the first Sunday we will worship at home during the Coronavirus quarantine. Tomorrow, I will be posting a few ways to mentally and spiritually prepare your family for home worship. This post addresses the physical preparation for family worship.

---

Why

Truly, there is very little needed to worship God but a broken and contrite spirit. However, one of the most useful things about liturgy is its ability to focus our attention, appeal to our senses, and illuminate God’s word.

Where

Is there a place where your whole family most commonly gathers? For my family, the dining room table is where we worship most often. With younger children, it is easier to maintain their attention when they have their own chairs and when they are eating.

When

What time of day does your family pay attention the best? Again, for us, mealtimes, are the best instructional time. We usually worship before and during dinner. If we can’t do that, a hymn and Compline at bedtime work well. If you are planning for a Sunday morning service, consider having a snack and a church journal ready for each child.

---

How

Now that you know the why, where, and when, how can you set this space apart?

Add a cross. Choose one from your wall or task your children with creating a cross for the table. In all of the sights and smells of the Anglican church, none are so powerful as the intersecting beams of the cross.

Light a candle (or two). A lit candle will immediately bring significance to the moment. Frequently I ask our children why I am lighting the candle. Their learned response is to say, “because God is here.” I will also sometimes say the following:

• “Is God the candle? No. Is God the fire? No. But the candle reminds us that God sent his Son, Jesus, to be the Light in a dark world, and without His light, we would not know love or salvation.”

Another variation is to set up two candles, like the two candles we see on the altar or communion table on Sundays. These two candles can represent a few different things, but I teach my children that they remind us that Jesus was fully, 100% man and fully, 100% God. The two identical candles are meant to remind us that without this dual-nature of Christ, communion with God would not be possible. While we do not serve the Eucharist inside of our house, it is appropriate to teach that every meal reminds us of our communion with God.

Every meal is a holy time. Every light is a breach of darkness.

Add color. Currently, we are observing Lent, a penitential season. To recognize Lent, we have a purple candle on our table, but in the past we have tied colored ribbons around white candles, used colored tablecloths or placemats to bring seasonal colors to the table. In a pinch, ask your kids to build purple candles with legos, make a purple collage, or fill a jar with purple items. You may be surprised at the intention with which your children make these items.

Add plants. Have you ever considered why most liturgical churches have greenery or beautiful bouquets behind or around the altar? It is to remind us that God is the creator of all. He is even creator of the barren seasons when the only thing available may be evergreen boughs. Task your children with filling a vase with nature. I do not have a garden, so our vases are frequently filled with wildflowers and weeds, but my children LOVE when it is their turn to fill the vases. Sometimes we just use a beautifully embroidered, floral table runner from a sweet friend in Mexico. Then, I get to thank God for the beauty of nature, for skilled hands, and for the blessed feet of our Jesus-loving friends there.

---

This Sunday, our worship will look like a laptop set up on our dining room table with a pocket cross leaned against the screen, flanked on either side by candles and vases of "nature" (weeds, most likely). Our chairs will be lined up on one side of the table, each with a Bible, and a journal. It won’t be perfect, and I expect to be constantly redirecting everyone’s focus, but there’s a certain freedom in knowing that God sees my effort, and I trust I will hear when He speaks, even if I’m physically separating two siblings by sitting in between them while feeding the baby (most likely scenario).