Confronting The Principalities And Powers By Being A Visitor In Church

I was relieved of preaching responsibilities today. The last week has been a sort of quasi-vacation. No sermon to write, no service to prepare, no meetings to attend, no groups to lead. I was available for funerals or other pastoral emergencies, but - fortunately - none came up. So, in the sense of the week being a break from church and ministry, it was enjoyable. I had the Holy Spirit gnawing at me most of the week, though. It was about - attending church.

Like many of my ministry colleagues, when I have a Sunday off, I usually don't attend church. There's no real reason. I just don't. All week the Holy Spirit has been telling me to go to church - not in words, but in feelings and thoughts and reflections that I've had. In some reading I've been doing, I came across the thought that it's the principalities and powers who create reasons for us not to worship by giving us "something else" to do, because the one thing the principalities and powers don't want us doing is worshiping God, since that takes away from our worship of them! This morning - even after a week of the Holy Spirit nudging me - I woke up rebellious; still in the hands of the principalities and powers. I puttered around, finding things to do, letting the clock slide and slide, almost as if I wanted to make it too late to attend a morning service anywhere. But the Holy Spirit didn't let me off the hook, and continued to push me - so that, at about 10:20 - I left for First Presbyterian Church here in town for their 10:30 service. I enjoyed it. I overcame the principalities and powers that tried to keep me away from worship. But they'll gnaw away at me in other ways. It's an ongoing battle, isn't it.

As I said, I have many ministry colleagues who treat a Sunday off not as a Sunday off of ministry but as a Sunday off of worship, and so they don't go. And, as I confessed, I most often do that too. But it's worth going to worship - just as a way of expressing faith and trust and thanks to God. I'd highly recommend to my ministry colleagues that you make a concerted effort to attend a worship service somewhere when you're off. It not only defeats the principalities and powers, it gives you the opportunity to embrace the role of "visitor" in an unfamiliar congregation, perhaps giving you insights into how visitors feel in your own.

I enjoyed today's worship. I was really only familiar with one of the hymns, and I'm not really into responsive psalms, and I didn't know exactly when to stand and when to sit - but that's life as a visitor, isn't it. The sermon by Rev. Adam Bartha (in only his third week in the congregation) was on a pretty typical post-Easter subject: doubting Thomas. But I really liked this line: "sometimes asking to see isn't doubt, sometimes asking to see is love." I often tell people that if they take even one thing away from my sermons to gnaw on, then the sermon is a success. There's the one thing I can gnaw on after attending worship today. Take that, principalities and powers!

Thanks be to God!