Faith Works 8-30-24
Jeff Gill
Attend a worship service because you don't want to
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Is inconvenience a positive part of worship?
Stay with me a bit here.
I am quite aware of the Biblical line of argument: Hebrews 10:25 is a common point of reference, chastising Christians and suggesting "not forsaking our meeting together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another."
There is a certain complexity to the textual surroundings there. I think it's fair to argue back it's not simply a call to earning a perfect attendance pin. More interesting to me is the stated justification for calling believers to meet, that they be there for the purpose of "encouraging one another."
In other words, YOU may say you don't need to come to church, but what if others need YOU? God can work in many ways through many people, but what if you are the needed connection for someone? God can't be stopped, but the consistent message of the Bible is that we really don't want to be getting in the way. God may work around our unfaithfulness, or possibly right over the top of us. Go with God's flow.
Encouraging one another is, to me, even more powerful a reason to attend worship regularly than "because I need it." We go for others, for our part in the wider plan. Yet it can also be true that we need fellowship.
Yes, I heard you in the back. You muttered you don't need THAT fellowship, those people. And there have been moments of "would you like to stand up and introduce yourself?" in worship services, or times for passing of the peace that went on painfully long, which have made me rethink the value of watching services on line at home.
It's true. We Christians can be annoying. I will let prospective Muslim or Buddhist guest columnists, Jewish commentators or Wiccan essayists, confess their own sins. As a Christian, I have no problem saying we Christians gathered together in large groups can be a bit much.
There are praise choruses that go on too long, enthusiasms for catch phrases which may or may not be liturgical, fellow attendees who insist on telling us what they think we need to know: I get it. Church can be very people-y. And it's perfectly fair for some who have to deal with people at work all week to find the gathered community more a burden than an opportunity on Sunday.
Yet I will say it again. Being inconvenienced, even being irritated, might be part of the point. Marva Dawn, a wonderful theologian of worship, liked to say to people who told her they didn't like a particular hymn or song: "ah, then that one wasn't for you, was it?"
Think about it. What is it about our faith in God's love made known through Christ who died to save us that ensures our right to a church service where every element is to our liking? How does that even make sense? "That one wasn't for you." But it might have been the message or music that reached someone else needing to hear it.
When something in a service, or even some person at church bugs me? That might be the message I need to reflect on what's actually going on there. Because in faith, what I am sure of is: it's not all about me.
Jeff Gill is a writer, storyteller, and preacher in central Ohio; he knows he can be irritating, too. Tell him what bugs you in worship at knapsack77@gmail.com or follow @Knapsack77 on Threads.
