Worship Notes: The
Gathering
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St. Luke
wrote about a church gathering in a third story room in Troas of Myasia. “On the first day of the week, when we met
to break bread, Paul was holding a discussion with them; since he intended to
leave the next day, he continued speaking until midnight” (Acts 20:7-12).*
They
met “on the first day of the week,” Sunday, and Paul spoke past midnight. Kind of
makes a 1½-hour service seem like a flash!
One small detail sheds some more light: When this story was written, a
new day began—not at sunrise—but at sunset. The Jewish Sabbath, Saturday, actually
begins Friday evening. So, ‘Sunday’ for
these Christians began on our
Saturday evening! Their weekly rhythm
had a slightly different beat than ours.
Gordon
Lathrop, in his book, Holy Things,
has a section on “Sacred Places, Sacred Times, Sacred People” (pp.
104-115). He creatively describes the
gathering of people for worship as music. “After the week is over, before a new
week begins, on a day all Christianity has set, at a time my community has
determined, I come into church. Just by
doing that, I am given a rhythm in time, a way to mark change and flow in my
days...” “Even in the simple gathering, with no instruments or even no singing,
the rhythms of speech and silence and of communal movement are those of quiet
music.”
When we
gather, a place and time “here and now” is created in the world where we seek a
taste and word from “then and there,” from the Kingdom of Christ. We gather here and now as we wait for what
is not yet. Our worship finds Christ and his Kingdom in the bath (baptism), the
word (scripture, preaching, teaching), and the meal (communion with Christ and
each other).
These,
in turn, help determine “the rhythm” of our gathering. If our focus
will be the “community” of the meal and how we support and nourish each other,
then perhaps our gathering should be full of handshakes, hugs and
“welcomes”—whether inside or outside the sanctuary—followed by a gathering hymn
and/or clear words calling on the Christ’s presence. For some people, it is difficult to worship God until a clear
connection to the people worshipping beside them is made.
Others
may need a sense of space and quiet, a moment to be confronted and reclaimed by
God. We each do need time to stand alone before his presence. From week to week it might change for you,
and your need that day will not match the next person’s.
For
that reason, both community and space
need to be included. A sip of coffee
and conversation in the narthex. A
smile and handshake from ushers, greeters and others. A moment of personal quiet in a church pew. A brief moment during the confession and
forgiveness. Patience and forgiveness
must already be in play as we gather.
Quiet contemplators can forgive an interruption to greet someone,
knowing that God also speaks through community. And vice-versa.
Christ’s
Spirit comes in the silence, through the welcoming and greeting, and through
voice of song and liturgy. He comes in the gathering because people are coming
together in his name. Next week: God’s Presence in the Confession
and Forgiveness.
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* The
story goes on to tell of how a young man, Eutychus, was sitting in one of the
open windows. Overcome by the late
hour, the torch heat and Paul’s long sermon, he fell asleep and out the
window. He was announced as dead, but
Paul went down, embraced Eutychus, and stated that he was alive; Eutychus did,
in fact, recover. I wouldn’t be
surprised that Luke, in retrospect, found the scene both miraculous and
humorous, including it as one of his favorite memories of Paul.