Faith Works 7-8-17

Faith Works 7-8-17

Jeff Gill

 

Distractions leading to spiritual clarity

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One of the subjects I'm most often asked by you all to write about is the matter of cell phones in worship.

 

Generally, the wish is for me to find the right formula of words from the pulpit or statement printed on the bulletin or up on the screens to help get the point across to everyone: please turn off or at least mute your devices!

 

I've heard phones go off at three of the last four funerals I've done. They're as likely to be among the immediate family as they are someone in the back row, so many of the clever and sharp rejoinders I've had suggested simply wouldn't be right. It does make you wonder what people are thinking . . . until your own goes off at an awkward moment. People who live through glass touchscreens shouldn't throw stones, perhaps?

 

My own cell phone is in a permanent state of mute. That works for me because I have reason enough to check it often, and keep it with me. Ring tones always seemed to me to be a piece of self-promotion and identity statement that really didn't work -- if I had a "Wu Tang Clan" ringtone, would that make me more legit? Doubtful.

 

Others I understand need at times that sound cue to remind them to check in, let alone answer the phone. So how to get it turned off, or down, or something, when it's time for worship, let alone a wedding or indeed a funeral?

 

From time to time, I will make a comment in the "setting-up" exercises in church, before the worship itself starts, and I don't tell anyone not to put a word in special folders for certain services, but I hate to put too much effort into it.

 

If you have the sensitivity of a snail, you already know you're in a special space, a different atmosphere, and times of quiet are ahead where a ring tone will make heads snap around. And if you get that, you'll self-police. If you don't get that, you probably won't think my announcement applies to you, anyhow.

 

What I would offer up is a word to those of us who feel that a cell phone's "ringing" is a jarring distraction that takes us out of where we want our thoughts to go: let's work on that problem in ourselves, shall we?

 

Because distractions change over time – I remember the first few months when digital watches and their on-the-hour beep were a chorus of electronica every 10 or 11 am in church – but some are not going away. Babies will fuss, or cry. Older members will grow a bit baffled, a great deal deaf, and whisper in a loud voice "what's he talking about?" to their friend in the next pew during a dramatic pause. Sirens will hasten past just beyond the walls, their sound intentionally even more piercing than they were a decade ago. Thunder rumbles in the summer season, other audible interruptions are all around us, whether the AC kicking in, or the blowers in the winter when the heat comes on.

 

Does a cell phone alert actually have to take us entirely, and enduringly, out of our attitude of prayer? Why should the vocalizations of an infant be a distraction that makes communion with the Lord impossible? What issues of focus and concern and guilt are tugging at our mental sleeves, already? If we regularly work on our spiritual disciplines and times of prayer, a distraction is really a bit of a test. Any of us can get jolted into a different awareness, but can we swiftly return to the peace we were feeling? Or were we there in the first place . . .

 

I don't want to encourage cell phones in worship. This is not an excuse for rude behavior (although I am intrigued by some people's choices in ring tones, I have to admit), but a call to reflection. What are we reacting to, and why is it such a big deal for us?

 

Trust me, I've been in churches where a baby hasn't interrupted worship for years. I'd rather learn, in faith, how to handle internally and communally the distractions when they come, than end up in a faith community where you're guaranteed no sudden loud noises.

 

That sounds more like a cemetery than a church!

 

Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and pastor in Licking County; tell him about how you deal with distractions in worship at knapsack77@gmail.com or follow @Knapsack on Twitter.