Pastoral Thought--June 22

As we begin another week, I want to comment upon Sunday’s worship service because something special occurred as we gathered to celebrate how God is with us. As you know, we are slowly welcoming more and more people back into our sanctuary at Plains. We hope that the coronavirus is behind us, but yet are still aware that things can, and often do, change suddenly. Seeing a familiar face open the back door, an act which casts more sunlight into the room each time, is a symbol of how we feel as each family returns to worship. It is a blessing to be sure and one that we do not take for granted.

So on Sunday, Tim begins with the service with announcements; Ruth begins playing the choral call to worship. We sang “Sanctuary” together as we will for the entire month. We said our opening prayer and the then it happened. . . The first hymn was sung, “Come, Thou Font of Every Blessing.” At that moment I noticed what I want to reflect upon. . . Your voices. You sang loudly. Passionately. Fervently. You sang: 

Come, Thou Font of every blessing, Tune my heart to sing Thy grace. . . 

It was so loud and so clear. The sounds of praise only grew as the song continued. Your voices swelled as I heard: 

Teach me some melodious sonnet, Sung by flaming tongues above;

Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it, Mount of God’s unchaining love!

This reminded me of something that the poet Rumi wrote. He said: “When you do a thing from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.” 

There was a river of passion and joy flowing through the sanctuary for the remainder of the service. You may not have known it. In fact, I bet that you did not think anything different was happening during the service. It was just a normal Sunday. But God was at work in worship. Denise’s Children’s message, the rest of the hymns, all of our prayers, the stories of God at work, they rang out with joy and passion. They came from your soul. Even when you asked for prayers and expressed pain, your soul was actively reaching out and responding to God. 

I wonder could that feeling last throughout the week? 

Like I said, you may not have known that you did it. Sunday may have felt like an ordinary Sunday. But it was not and I was blessed to witness it. Can it continue? 

Blessings

Rev. Derek