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Written by Richard Skaggs
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Monday, 18 May 2009 |
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I love Sunday mornings, don’t you? Well, to be sure, I am a priest and I guess most people would think that I would love Sunday mornings. However, even if I weren’t a priest, I should still love them just the same and I’ll tell you why. It is the one time during the whole of a busy week where I can be sure of having an uninterrupted hour or so with God and with God’s people. In that hour I forget about me and can direct everything toward the God I claim to love. It is the one time when I can really love God and my neighbor as I ought.
I can do what Paul writes to the Philippians—-I can “have no anxiety about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let {my} requests be made known to God.” In that hour I can offer my praise and thanksgiving to the One who created and redeemed me. I can have my senses heightened to a profound awareness of the presence and majesty of God all around me in the beauty of the building, in the fragrance of incense and flowers, in the uplifting sounds of praise from instruments, anthems and hymnody. I can see God present in the signs and symbols, and actions and language of the sacrament. I can hear the Word of God proclaimed in Scripture and the Good News proclaimed from the pulpit. I can sit and think about (again, with Paul) “whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise.” I can go to the altar of God, present my empty uplifted hands to Him and have them filled with bits of His divinity. I can take that same divinity within in myself and share in it. But most of all I can sit among God’s people who are at that moment all sharing and experiencing the same wonderful mystery of God’s unfailing love with me. All of this is part of the great privilege in which we can freely participate on any given Sunday morning and is not only a privilege, but also a right given to each of us at our baptism.
While all of these things are important, it is the last of these—-the idea of God’s people coming together in one body—-which holds great significance for me. Dr. Bonnie Thurston in her recent teaching on the Gospel of Mark reminded us that the Gospels are about community. She said that Christianity is not some sort of disembodied spiritualism to be practiced alone, but is a body coming together for healing and salvation. (A side note here—-the word for healing and salvation in the Greek is the same word). Ian Markham in his discussion of the Eucharist suggests that in our prayers together we create space in which God can work. If this is true, then when less of the body is present some of that space is lost. I cannot tell you how much I love and care for my family here at St. Matthews and while I experience a sense of joy at being with the people of God who are there each Sunday, I truly am saddened and miss those who are not there. To me it seems that quite literally a part of the body has been amputated. Of course, even an amputee learns to get along with less, but it is so much better to have the body well and whole. I do not mean to cajole or complain or inflict guilt ( though that might be just what I am doing), but I hope that we all will think carefully about the importance of our presence in worship. I realize that there are certainly legitimate reasons for not being here, but if any of you are thinking that no one will miss me if Iam not there and so it doesn’t really matter, THINK AGAIN. I do miss you in a profound way and so does God!
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Verse of The Day
“What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you-guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.” ( 2 Timothy 1:13-14)
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