Worshiping with our Stuff

While I took a Sunday off from my preaching duties at Tuckston United Methodist Church this past Sunday I did not take a Sunday off from worship.  I attended the 11:00 service at the West End United Methodist Church in Nashville.  

I enjoy worshiping in different churches when I'm away from my pulpit.  Worshiping in other congregations reminds me that as a United Methodist I am a part of a connectional church. Each United Methodist Church is a part of every other United Methodist Church.

When I worship in in other places, I sometimes get new ideas for my own congregation.  Above all, in worshiping in another place I am still worshiping God who never takes time off from me.

The service at West End was a wonderful experience.  The choir was, in a word, magnificent.  The young staff member whose lot it was to preach that day delivered a fine sermon and the communion service seemed more meaningful, perhaps because I was able to simply receive the sacrament and not have to worry about the logistics of serving communion.  All in all I was glad to have gone to the house of the Lord.

Sitting a few rows in front of me in the West End sanctuary was a homeless gentlemen.   I surmised that he was homeless because I recalled seeing him the day before panhandling around the Vanderbilt campus prior to the Georgia-Vanderbilt football game.  On Sunday, he was wearing the same dirty tattered clothes he wore the preceding Saturday.

Yet, the dead give way about his homeless state was the fact that he was carrying a large plastic garbage bag with him filled with his possessions.  He sat them down on the pew beside him.  I did notice a few of the church members speak or wave to him so it is quite probable that he was a regular attendee at West End. 

He didn't stand and sing the hymns or participate in the liturgy.  When it was time to take communion he took it at his seat, like the physically impaired members of the congregation, rather than proceed to the chancel rail.  During the service he basically just sat in church with his stuff.

I could make some guesses as to why he acted in that way but  that would simply be speculation and inaccurate judgments on my part.

I have reflected on the homeless man in worship a great deal since I observed him last Sunday and I came to the conclusion that in the end there was really no difference between myself and the homeless man.

Obviously both of us were sinners in need of grace.  The communion table, if it does nothing else, reminds us that we are all in need of God's grace.  We come to the table as an invited guest of Christ. We don't earn our place at the communion table.  

Yet, that was not the only commonality I found.  The homeless man came to church that day with his stuff, all crammed in a plastic garbage bag.  I didn't bring a garbage bag but I did bring my stuff to church that day as well.  I brought my worries, my concerns, my regrets and my sin to church with me.  I carried my stuff into the sanctuary as well; it just wasn't in a plastic bag.  However, just like the homeless man's stuff, my stuff was sitting right there on the pew with me.

In that regard none of us are really different from the homeless man.  We all come to worship with our stuff.  Even if we are running low on stuff on a given Sunday we live in a world that is full of stuff.  We worship against the backdrop of pain, despair, injustice, oppression and brokenness that haunts our world.  We do not worship in a vacuum.

The sixth chapter of Isaiah is one of my favorite passages of scripture.  In that passage we find Isaiah at worship in the Temple.  As Isaiah begins his recollections of the experience he denotes the historical context of the event by saying, "In the year King Uzziah died."  

While that might seem to be an innocuous reference to the modern reader in reality it tells us a great deal.  In Jewish history the year King Uzziah died was a time of great unrest and uncertainty.  It would be akin to one of us speaking of attending worship "soon after 9-11" or "the Sunday after the Challenger exploded." 

Thus, Isaiah tells us that worship happens amidst the context of life.  The context could be what is going on within confines of our own world or what is taking place in  our larger nation and world.  So it is that we always bring some stuff to worship.

The homeless man in Nashville sat there in the pew with his stuff.  What stuff is sitting in the pew with you?  Whatever it is feel free to bring your stuff into the House of the Lord.