Church?

Last Sunday I was back in my home church for the first time after a long away. As I sat there singing songs that brought back powerful memories of God’s faithfulness, and rejoiced at the birth of a new baby, and reflected on the years with a colleague who is leaving, I looked across the sanctuary at someone whose words wounded me, another enduring the pain of a divorce, and one who looked like there was anywhere he’d rather be…

I thought, this really is the church.

We’re like any large quirky, dysfunctional family that sits around the Thanksgiving table and laughs together, and sometimes hurts each other, but are there for hugs when the chips are down and know that at the end of the day there’s love and grace because we’re in this together to the end of the road.

While we were away we worshipped in all different settings around the world –

• With a handful of believers in an Anglican service in a chapel in the Swiss Alps

• With a large American congregation where we felt kind of like we were on a rowdy tour bus with guides who talked at us a lot and kept drawing our attention from one thing to another without letting us take it in before we were off again on a rollicking ride up hill and down, turning this way and that.
• In a video venue with thousands in different locations, connected only by technology and a love of Jesus.
• With Africans in a room made of mud - beautiful voices raised in worship, singing, “This is my story, this is my song; praising my Savior all the day long.”

In the end, I always think about how my friend Stefan described church once. He said, sometimes we come into worship and we feel confident of the words we sing about God. We feel strong and secure and sure of His love and goodness. But there are other days when we come into worship full of pain and doubt and we need others in the Body of Christ to sing the words for us. Someone to sing the words you can’t. To affirm that indeed God is good even when He seems distant, and it’s going to be ok and there will be a time when you can sing the words again yourself.

I’m wondering about each of you reading this. Will you be in church this Sunday? What kind of church is it? How do you feel when you go there?

Wherever you are today, if you’re not able to sing the words yourself, I pray you have a faith community around you who will sing them for you until you can.