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Recently, I was listening to a sermon online. The text he chose was from one of Paul's letters. He summarized Paul's words to that early church saying, “Keep on doing what you are doing.” The preacher went on to describe the way in which our world is created by God in such a way that many things repeat themselves, and that we are dependent on that. The sun rises each day. Gravity doesn't suddenly disappear, and we all float away into space. He went on to say that God looks at all of creation and says, “Do it again.”
Our two dogs, Gladney and C. J., like it when we scratch them behind the ears or on the back, or pretty much anywhere else. If we stop, they take their noses and put them under our hands in order to get us to “do it again.” This desire to “do it again” is something God seems to have built into the fabric of creation.
This past Sunday as I was leading worship, I was listening to the words of liturgy. They were words that are very familiar to me, having heard them again and again over my more than 36 years as a pastor. And yet I found myself hearing them and seeing them printed on the page of the worship bulletin in a new way. I noticed my hands holding the bulletin and the red stole I was wearing next to these familiar and ancient words. And at that moment it all seemed very, very good and filled with deep meaning. And I realized there was something really important about worship that we “do it again” every Sunday.
There is something about doing the same thing again which reminds me of God's faithfulness and all that God does again and again to sustain our lives. So, whatever it is God has given you to do in this life, do it again -- but pay attention to how God might be at work in all of that.
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