After a long Lenten season that ends with Holy Week and Easter - followed by a night or two of good sleep and a few meals that didn't include jelly beans - I arrive in this uneasy, humbling place:
"Where was so-and-so?"
Although the church was full on Easter Sunday, some voices were missing from the chorus of "Alleluias."
Don't get me wrong - I am so grateful for familiar folks who worship regularly, who serve faithfully, who give generously of themselves - whose faith overflows and even sometimes sustains those whose own belief may have withered. But I have a tremendous soft spot for those who only worship on Christmas and Easter. I long for a glimpse of whatever fragile tether keeps them connected, if only rarely and reluctantly - pressure to please Grandma, years of habit, nostalgia, an unexpected dose of courage, openness to the nudge of the Spirit, old-fashioned longing for something more.
I am fretting today about those who didn't make it this year - I missed them and pray they have found a place of belonging and purpose in another faith community.
Don't get me wrong - I am so grateful for familiar folks who worship regularly, who serve faithfully, who give generously of themselves - whose faith overflows and even sometimes sustains those whose own belief may have withered. But I have a tremendous soft spot for those who only worship on Christmas and Easter. I long for a glimpse of whatever fragile tether keeps them connected, if only rarely and reluctantly - pressure to please Grandma, years of habit, nostalgia, an unexpected dose of courage, openness to the nudge of the Spirit, old-fashioned longing for something more.
I am fretting today about those who didn't make it this year - I missed them and pray they have found a place of belonging and purpose in another faith community.
There are a million reasons people stay away - both simple and complex, reasons we might quibble with and some that would break our hearts. Surely God has a firm hold on us, even when we're walking as fast as we can in the other direction, even when God and the church have been sources of disappointment and judgment and pain, even when going through the motions seems hollow, dull and irrelevant.
Long-time members, an old church friend, a new neighbor, someone with too-early signs of dementia, an awkward teenager, my own children, strangers - it takes my breath away to worship and share a holy meal together. Even if it's just once. Someone has the courage to show up just in time to to whisper "He is risen indeed!" on Easter morning? Thank God! It gives me hope.
Of course, it's problematic to think that God can only be found inside the walls of a sanctuary. We need some strong tethers that pull us out of the church and our comfort zones and into the world God loves.
Christ is risen... for you. And even for your neighbor who may decide to sleep in or go grocery shopping on Sunday morning.
Christ is risen... for you. And even for your neighbor who may decide to sleep in or go grocery shopping on Sunday morning.
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