Hello,
If you are one of
those Christians who are in the habit of only coming to church on Christmas and
Easter, we, who come much more regularly owe you an apology. Seriously.
You see, there
are some of us have given you a name, and it isn’t a name of endearment. Some of us call you “C and E” Christians, counting
and pointing out in disdain the times you are in worship with us. We are sorry for naming you such.
You see, there
are some of us who look down on you saying that your faith is more watered down
than ours and that you are a poor example of the Christian faith, compared to
us, that is. We are sorry for looking
down our spiritual noses at you.
You see, there
are some of us who look at the expenses that we incur to keep the doors of the
church open and we say that if only those part-time “C and E” Christians would
carry more of their load it would be a lot easier on the rest of us “full time”
Christians. We are sorry for looking
upon your pocketbook, rather than you.
You see, there
are some of us who don’t like it when you come on Christmas and Easter, and you
crowd the church, and we have to get there early to make sure that we get our
seats. When we see you in our seats we
say to ourselves, and sometimes to you, “I am here every week, and this is my
seat. I have earned it.” We are sorry for what poor hosts we have
been.
You see, there
are some of us who don’t mind at all that you are sitting in overflow sections
when you come to worship on Christmas and Easter, convinced that it is obvious
that your faith is not that important to you, so you are sitting where you
belong. We are sorry for our arrogance.
The fact of the
matter is that you who bear the name Christian are full-blooded brothers and
sisters, and I, for one, am delighted that in spite of the eyes of judgement
that you sometimes get when you come to worship, you still come. I am delighted to see your smile. I am delighted to hear your voice. I am delighted to embrace you with the peace
of the Lord. I am delighted to kneel beside you at the Lord’s
table. And I know that I am not
alone. Many are likewise delighted to
see you on Christmas and Easter.
Of course, I
would love to see you more often, just as families who are bonded in love but
spread abroad wish they could see each other more often. We wonder how you are doing. We would like to be a more caring part of
your life. We need the compassion of
your heart and your shoulder to lean on, because for some of us your heart and
your shoulder are most secure. You add
joy to our lives, and the celebrations that we have are less fulsome without
you.
And when it comes
to our faith compared to yours, fissures of doubt flow through our faith,
too. Times of incongruence between our
faith and our lives are part of us, too.
Toxic thoughts eat away at our faith, too. There are also times in our lives when faith
is very hard to find. When you get right
down to it, when we come to church, we, like you, come to have our faith
deepened, not because of the deepness of our faith.
Easter is April
16, and I look forward to seeing you there.
I look forward to taking part with you in the event that forever changed
the universe, and forever changed your life and mine; the resurrection of
Jesus. I look forward to looking you in
the eye and speaking words of hope, hope beyond the imagination of our minds, “Jesus
is risen! He is risen indeed!” I look forward to watching God take hold of
your heart and mine, leading us through every day of life, and leading us back
into his house Sunday after Sunday to work the Easter miracle of amazing grace
in your life and mine.
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace, (ggap)
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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