Why We Gather
This is basically a follow up piece to one I posted 2 weeks ago. That piece dealt with the “pollution of the pulpit” with politics. In this piece I will take a closer look at the purpose of worship. First and foremost, we gather in worship to…worship. Duh! We are there to gather as a community to praise and worship Jesus Christ as our Risen Lord and Savior. We are also there to recommit ourselves to at least another week (assuming you go to church weekly) of service to live out the Gospel as best we humanly can. It is a visible sign of our faith in Jesus that we gather together to proclaim that faith. This is true, I think, whether or not you are a member of a liturgical church (Lutheran, Anglican, Catholic) or a member of a more fundamentalist or nontraditional church with a freer flowing service.
It’s Called A Sanctuary for a Reason
There is, however, a deeper reason that we gather. Or at least there should be. I have long thought of church as En Gedi or an oasis. It is to be a place of refuge from the wider world, if only for a little while. Like an oasis it is a place that should be designed to refresh and rejuvenate one’s spirit. To have politics follow us into this oasis is soul crushing to say the least.
It seems to me that there is more than enough time to fight the world’s battles outside the four walls of your church that you do not need to fight them inside those walls. Yes, we are to be challenged with the call of Christ to absolute love, forgiveness, inclusion, and peace. That is in itself uplifting when we consider the gift of a God that loves us so much to give us this limitless love, forgiveness, and inclusion, and peace. That is an altogether different thing than dragging rancid, vituperative, and divisive politics inside the sanctuary.
There must be a place in this world that offers us some place to remain hidden from the world for long enough to revive our spirit and recommit ourselves to God’s work in the wider world. The sanctuary of our Lord seems to me to be the only place for that.
It is crucial to our faith walk that we stand broken, and repentant before our Lord and accept His forgiveness for all that we have done and left undone. In this way we can be of some real worth to the wider world through a proclamation of faith put into action, rejuvenated by a simple hour of refuge and peace.
So, we should keep politics out of the pulpit, out of the sanctuary and relegated it to its proper place. Demand an hour of peace in order to then go forward and wage ceaseless peace in the outer world in the name of the Prince of Peace.
Praise Be to God
