Wednesday, September 10, 2008

OH! What You are Missing...!


It was an ordinary Tuesday early evening, around 5:20. Just when you’d think people would be at home from work, getting ready for dinner or eating it, relaxing, catching the news on TV, doing homework, hanging out, doing chores, or just being home and glad the day was over. But no, not these people. They came individually or by couples as adults, or a group of two or three kids at a time. Men and women in their twenties, thirties, the nebulous forties-fifties, the older gray haired folks as well as teens. People dressed as through they’d just come from work as well as those dressed very casually. The kids were generally in jeans…but neat and well groomed. Everyone seemed genuinely glad to be there with one another, and in the peace of the place.
When they’d arrive, you’d see them step over to other people they knew and warmly greet them with a hug, brief conversation, or just a hand on the shoulder as they’d pass on their way. And they kept coming. Only a few who came in just solitarily took a seat.
I was amazed, simply stunned at their numbers. What would bring so many here at 5:30 on a Tuesday, an ordinary, nothing special Tuesday? It surely wasn’t up-beat, contemporary music because there wasn’t any music at all. It wasn’t a charismatic, magnetic, supercharged dynamic speaker that drew them because the man who spoke, while expressive, was quietly mild mannered and had a rather thick Italian (or perhaps Spanish) accent. While I didn’t actually count the number of people, there must have been a few more than 50 altogether. On an ordinary Tuesday evening at 5:30.
Okay. You may have guessed by now and if you haven’t, I won’t keep you in suspense any longer J This was a church. Not a special service, but a regularly occurring service at a church in Concord. It was an evening when a little earlier, after an appointment, I had so wished there was a church which was open nearby just so I could be in a service of worship and quiet. Poof! I happened to be driving right by Sacred Heart church and there on the sign it said they had services at 5:30 on Monday and Tuesday night. Wow! I wheeled my car over with a quick prayer of thanks and that’s how I happened to be there myself.
What’s my point in all this? Clearly these are people who LOVE their church, love one another, and love God. They didn’t have to be there….I checked. It wasn’t any day of “obligation” and it didn’t “count” as Sunday worship. It was clearly something for THEM. Know what? I happened to be out after a similar appointment on a Monday evening at the same time and I stopped in for a service and saw/experienced the same thing with the same kind of numbers again. Know what else? It’s the SAME thing I see among those of you who attend our church on Sundays! So many of you have come up to me or said to me on the phone that even sometimes when you don’t feel like getting up and coming to church, you leave feeling so glad you came. That the week just doesn’t “go right” if you miss church and the fellowship of everyone there. But for those of you who don’t keep the covenant of the “Statement of Faith” in the back of our hymnal which surely doesn’t say we *must* come to church, OH what you are missing if you don’t attend! The warmth, the fellowship, the peace which you just can’t find anyplace, else no matter how much you may enjoy being outdoors. Not to mention hearing the Word of God and maybe getting a different and helpful perspective on a difficult situation you’re dealing with, and being with people who deeply care about you. It’s a family of faith you can count on being there for you in celebration as well as helping you through times of sorrow.
But my friends, I’m worried. I’m concerned about the very human tendency of taking for granted that “Oh it’ll always be there when I want or need it” and are instead lured into thinking that the hour and a half (max) is just TOO much to take out of your Sunday recreation. OH what you are missing! But here’s something else you may not know. YOU are missed, as well! We are diminished by more than just the numbers of those of you who choose to do something else beside come to church on Sunday (except when you are ill or convalescing, or away on vacation and worshipping wherever you are). Our fellowship and morale is eroded by this ominous feeling that something is amiss when you are not here. We are a family, dear people. Connected to one another whether present or not. The days are growing shorter and darker, and the wind is getting sharp and cold. If you have been among the missing, come home! Come back to the table and be enfolded in the warmth our church is so famous for. Because OH what you are missing! And OH how you are missed! Plus, we have music you enjoy singing and the preaching is pretty lively, too :-)

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