Into the Wild ~ Matt Way
If you were at our Jazz in the Gardens event last week, you’ll have heard the announcement that, from September, St Luke’s is going to be hosting a new kind of church gathering. For those who weren’t around to hear it, allow me to bring you up to speed.
Beginning on Sunday13th September, we’ll be launching Church of the Wild. Meeting on the second Sunday of each month at 3pm, whatever the weather, we’ll be gathering outdoors in our church gardens, driven by a belief that one of the ways God longs to meet with us is through the natural world.
When you read Scripture, a pattern emerges again and again: when people find themselves in the wilderness, God begins to speak. Think of Moses at the burning bush, Elijah on Mount Horeb, or Paul’s time in Arabia.
Perhaps my favourite example comes from Mark’s Gospel. Immediately after his baptism, Jesus is led by the Spirit into the wilderness for forty days. Mark tells us that “he was with the wild animals, and the angels attended him.” If you’re like me, you may have read this to mean that Jesus was surrounded by both threat and comfort. But many biblical scholars suggest something much more beautiful: that the wild animals and the angels belong together. Both attend to him, and both are signs that, even in the wilderness, Jesus is held within the peace and care of God.
Whether we find ourselves literally surrounded by wild animals or curled up in a comfortable armchair, these stories speak a powerful figurative truth. We belong to a God who meets us in places of uncertainty and disorientation; in seasons where nothing seems to be growing, or when life feels as though it is coming at us from every angle.
But it also seems like a mistake to overlook the more literal dimension of these stories. After all, countless people testify to encountering God in the midst of untamed creation. Perhaps you’ve known something of that yourself?
Have you ever found yourself captivated by light dancing through the trees? Felt life rushing through your veins as you stand beside crashing waves? Experienced an unexpected peace in the early morning birdsong? Many of us have moments when the natural world leaves us with a sense of wonder, peace or mystery.
This is where Church of the Wild begins.
The Christian tradition has long held that creation is one of the ways we come to know its Creator. Before there were church buildings, there were gardens, deserts, mountains and lakesides, and people found God. Jesus himself taught outdoors. He invited people to notice birds, seeds, trees and wildflowers, discovering that the world around us can become a window into the kingdom of God.
Church of the Wild is an invitation to slow down, reconnect with the natural world, and become more attentive to the presence of God. There will be no long sermons and no neat answers, not really even an expectation that you already know what you believe. Through simple Christian practices of stillness, reflection, wandering and conversation, we’ll make space to notice what is so easily overlooked, trusting that God will meet us there.
Our gardens are a beautiful blessing, and I feel incredibly fortunate that they surround our church. I hope they will become a deeply spiritual gift to us as a congregation as we begin Church of the Wild, young and old alike. But I also hope they become a place where people who might never step through our doors can begin exploring the Christian faith.
So many people discover moments of wonder, peace or mystery in the natural world, but don’t always have a language for those experiences. My hope is that Church of the Wild will create a space where those moments become the beginning of a deeper conversation about God.
Our first gathering will be at 3pm on Saturday 13th September, and everyone is warmly welcome.
Let’s begin with wonder.