...he went to the synagogue on the
Sabbath day, as was his custom...
(Luke 4:16, NRSV) Only once do the Gospels
tell us Jesus went to the synagogue to keep the Sabbath, but this entry makes
it very clear Jesus went often. As Christians, we have shifted the Sabbath to
Sunday in honor of the resurrection.
We live in a wonderful country where each of us has the right to worship God in our own way. Many of the earliest settlers came to America just for that reason. Remember the Pilgrims and the Puritans?
America has always had a wide diversity of ways to worship. The first Christian service in a permanent settlement was a Catholic Mass in St. Augustine, Florida some 42 years before the founding of Jamestown. The English brought the Church of England which became my Episcopal Church and the splinter Methodist Church led by my namesake, John Wesley.
All of this background brings to one of the most wonderful worship experiences of my life. An organization called Renovaré (Latin, to renew) held a national convention in Houston, Texas. Richard J. Foster wrote a book based on The Sermon On The Mount (Matthew 5-7) calling on Christian churches to come together and celebrate their different ways of worshipping the Father. For one week, we did just that. Ladies and gentlemen, I truly believe I received a tiny glimpse of what worship will be like in heaven.
My home parish at the time was blessed with members who played the bagpipes. Father Melvin brought one of these wonderful musicians to the conference. I was sitting at the break roughly two thirds of the way up from the stage.
The musician started at the very
top of the 75 rows and began to play Amazing Grace
as he worked his way down
the steps. When he passed my row, I started humming along as did the person next
to me. Chills ran up my spine as I heard my humming spread across the
auditorium. By the time the musician got to the stage, all 10,000 attendees
appeared to be humming along. I was in absolute awe as we started to sing.
Each American has the right to worship God in his own way. Sadly, church attendance has been dropping all of my life. Is this a use or lose freedom?
Grace and peace in the power of the Holy Spirit.
(J. Wesley McComb is a published author and a member of Christ Episcopal Church, 1534 7th St, Slidell, 643-4531.)
© by The Slidell Independent newspaper; originally published on August 20, 2009. Used by permission of publisher and author.