Too busy to worship?

We do a lot around here. Volunteers are always buzzing around this place, and even more are actively engaged in their own ministry all around the community. 

But nothing is more important than worship. And no week is more significant than Holy Week. 

This week we gather to hear the story of faith -- the whole story, not just part of it. Not just the good stuff, but the tough stuff, too. We hear about brokenness and wrong decisions and terribly painful sin and separation. Then, on Easter, we hear about new beginnings and second chances and another lease on life. We hear it all. And we worship a God who wants to tell us the whole truth, the whole story. Not just part of it. 

I've met plenty of folks who have given up on worship. They don't get anything out of it, or they feel they can worship while kayaking on a lake better than singing old hymns in a stodgy church. I get it ... sort of. 

Here's the problem: God didn't ask us to worship for his sake, but for ours. He invites us to step away from our consumer mentality and consider that worship isn't about us or our preferences. Worship reminds us that Christianity isn't a solo sport, a one person band. Worship is about being in community with God and with God's people. And when we decide that we don't need the church, we're effectively eliminating half of our faith ... which means half of the story.

Who wants to hear and know only half the story? 

A lot of folks are struggling with the discipline of regular worship. If that's you, may I invite you to give it another chance? As you do, ask God to give you the blessing of proper focus -- a focus on God. Ask God to remove your worries and opinions and all those things that get in the way of true worship. And set your heart on a spirit of gladness, that your worship might reflect the beauty of Psalm 100: "Shout to the Lord all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness, and come before him with joyful song. Enter his gates with thanksgiving, and his courts with praise, for the Lord is good and his mercy extends forever; his mercy endures for all generations. 

I look forward to seeing you in worship, friends. Happy Easter!

Waiting at the DMV

As I write this note, I’m sitting in the DMV office waiting to renew my driver’s license. 45 minutes in, I’m trying to find ways to occupy my time.

Within this 8 x 12 waiting area sit 19 people from all walks of life, each of us consumed by our own thoughts, living in our own little universe. One lady I recognize from the CDC. Otherwise, I don’t know a soul. No one is talking. Most are staring straight ahead. One older gentleman is asleep. Others are looking into their phones, lost in the pages of Facebook or Instagram. I’m pretty sure they have no clue I’m writing about them. 

In Luke’s gospel, Jesus approaches Jerusalem on a day we call Palm Sunday. The closer he gets, the louder the crowds become, crowds that just a few months earlier had been silent, lost in their own world of personal, daily concerns. When the Pharisees told Jesus to quiet the crowds, he said “If they keep quiet, the stones would begin to shout.”

What do we need to shout about today? What deserves our utmost attention?

Let’s not leave the gospel in the hands of stones. God needs us to stand up and shout! ..... although, admittedly, this lady sitting next to me might get a little nervous if I do.

What can we learn from each other?

I bet you and I disagree over gun control. In fact, I guarantee it.

Whether you’re a gun rights advocate or a gun removal activist, there likely are nuances in your position that would cause me to disagree with you. The same is true with most topics of conversation, especially the controversial ones. Immigration? Probably. Gay rights? Likely. The new tax code? Almost certainly.

But guess what? I’m not right about everything. I know that’s hard to believe (no comment, Krista!), but it’s true. As it turns out, I don’t have the corner on absolute truth, unless we’re talking about Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

Which is precisely why we need to be in conversation. I need to hear your opinion, and you need to hear mine. We need to do more than talk at each other and dare to listen to one another.

It’s not rocket science. And yet, well, why are we so bad at it these days?

I learned something in middle school that was critically important to me. I was at a youth gathering at Camp Kinard, although I can’t remember much more than that. We were doing the time-honored Trust Fall, when participants turn their backs to the group, close their eyes, and fall backwards into the arms of friends — trusting that they’ll be caught.

Trust is the key word.

The Trust Fall activity was old hat, one of those activities youth leaders rely on when they’ve run out of ideas.

But this time, one of the adults — I’ll never remember who — said something like this: “We’ll never learn to listen to one another unless we learn to trust one another.” Trust isn’t the ending point. Learning to trust one another is but a starting point that leads to better listening, which leads to better understanding, which sometimes leads to compromise, which almost always leads to peace.

We seem to live in an age when everyone wants their opinions heard, but no one wants to hear the opinions of others. Bizarre, isn’t it? We need to rediscover the art of listening ... which starts by daring to trust.

The NRA has a lot to learn from students in Parkland, Florida ... and the rising tide of gun control activists have something to learn from the NRA. So let’s stop the political maneuvering. Let’s stop sacrificing truth for the sake of protecting political turf.

Let’s dare to have conversations that matter in a spirit of trust and respect. Let’s open our ears so that the Spirit might open our hearts and minds. We just might learn something from each other.

“Encourage one another, and build each other up,” Paul writes to the confused and somewhat misguided church in Thessalonica. It’s good advice for us today, don’t you think?