Why do you come to church?
Do you come for the music? To hear an inspiring word? To find comfort? Peace? To not feel alone?
Why do you come to church?
When I was a child growing up in Timonium, I went to church because it’s what we did as a family, every Sunday. My family attended The Church of the Nativity, in the days before it became the Roman Catholic “megachurch” it is today. I liked the sermons Fr. Coulson preached; even as a child, I felt like he was talking to me, his sermons were so clear, grounded and accessible. I loved the ritual and the singing, and how we all prayed the “Our Father” together. I loved looking around at all the people and families who sat around us, and how they often sat in the same pew Sunday after Sunday after Sunday. (For any who might remember Mark Belanger, the Orioles’ shortstop in the 1970’s, he and his family often sat in the pew right in front of us; his sons were as tall and slim as he was!) I loved when it was time to go up for communion and receive a wafer.
And I really loved how each Sunday after church, I would find Fr. Meisel standing by one of the front glass doors, waiting to greet and talk with people. He would always talk with me, Sunday after Sunday, month after month, year after year after year; wanting to know how I was, how school was going, how my family was doing. He had a dry sense of humor, deep voice, big heart, and lots of plain old common sense. I loved that, and I loved him.
As an adult and an Episcopal priest now for 14 years, I still come to church for many of the same reasons I did as a child. I still love looking around and seeing everyone in the pews, and how people often like to sit in the same pew Sunday after Sunday after Sunday. I still love communion. And I still love the sense of knowing and being known; of loving and being loved — by people in the church, and by something bigger that some of us call “God”.
But there is more, now, that draws me to church. I come to cry, to laugh, to sing, to pray alongside others who are doing their best to navigate this thing called “life” and “being human”, just like me. I come to listen to ancient stories of hope and healing, suffering and redemption, perseverance and faith; and to those stories about Jesus of Nazareth that my mind-body-soul have come to rely on like a thirsty pilgrim traveling on a desert road.
And … to be honest … I come to be changed, to be transformed, knowing and believing that who I am today — much as I have grown — is still shy of the fullness of Who God Created Me to Be. I come to be part of the transformation of our community, our city, our nation, and yes, our world, that the glory of God may be made more fully manifest throughout all of God’s creation.
So that’s just some of why I come to church.
What about you? Why do you come?
(And if you simply need an invitation to come, you’ve just been invited!)
Love,
Cristina