Snow Day
Pastor Betsy from Mount Vernon United Methodist Church emailed me this past Saturday evening to tell me that all services for the next day were cancelled. The snow that fell on Friday had been plowed off the parking lot, but melting during the day has caused a sheet of ice to form. So, the Methodists and Baptists alike had to cancel services.
It is a strange feeling for a pastor to not be in church on Sunday morning. I felt guilty. I felt anxious. All day long I felt like something was not right.
The feeling was exacerbated by the absence of my family. Since church had been cancelled, my son did not come home for his weekly visit. My wife and daughter were out of town that day attending a baby shower for our niece. So, I sat in the living room with three dachshunds and a cat on my lap, wondering what to do with myself.
As I sat, I remembered the words of Psalm 86, which I had read just a few days before: “How lovely is your dwelling place, Lord Almighty! My soul yearns, even faints, for the courts of the Lord; my heart and my flesh cry out for the living God,”
As I contemplated these words, I came to a better understanding of what I was feeling. It wasn’t the absence of worship (which is important). It wasn’t the absence of my church family (which is also important). And it was not being separated from the brick and mortar of our temporary location. It was the living God that I was missing. The feeling that I get from corporate worship in the “courts of the Lord.”
I could have come to the church and worshipped by myself, but it would not have been the same. And I could have worshipped at home. Or I could have gone to a local church that had not canceled services. But what I was missing was being in the presence of MY God, with MY people, in My place of worship. That is a powerful experience.
Now, I know that salvation does not depend on worship attendance. And I know that God can be worshipped any time in any place. I know that people get sick, and go out of town, and have to work. But at some point, the community of faith needs to worship in God’s house. We had a break this past Sunday, but this week, let’s all get back to church!
