Anybody Listening?

Date Published: 05/11/2009

William Brosend wrote a provocative piece in the April 21, 2009 Christian Century (pp. 12-13), that took my reflections on John Cunyus’ musings on whether Jesus was pleased with Easter Sunday worship.

He wrote how he was talking to a preachers’ workshop about “the Sundays we know ‘they’ will be there – Easter, Mother’s Day, a baptism in the family and Christmas Eve. But here’s the kicker: they do not want to be there. Their body language and facial expressions shout, ‘Can we go now?’ They are uninterested, unconvinced and certainly unimpressed. How do we preach to them?”

He got an immediate response from the preachers in the workshop. “Those people are in the congregations every Sunday. Half the congregation almost didn’t show up. These uninterested, unconvinced and unimpressed would rather be anywhere else – not necessarily playing golf or watching a game, but maybe doing their taxes or painting a closet.”

Ouch!

We just got past Mother’s Day. A few people were in our worship to be with their mothers, and a few went elsewhere for the event. The culture calls for warm sentimentality, but the ranks of those who are excluded are legion: those grieving deceased mothers, mothers who have lost children, women who have been unable to be mothers, those alienated from the mothers, mothers deeply concerned about alienated children. I even know people who wouldn’t miss worship any other Sunday who stay home on Mother’s Day to avoid the pain.

I have often observed what an awesome, terrifying thing it is to stand before God’s people Sunday after Sunday and presume to speak on God’s behalf. I take this responsibility very seriously and invest time and energy in prayer, study, planning, writing, practice and more prayer every week. Yet, I know the folly of thinking that those twenty minutes make much of an impact.

So when we came to the invitation to respond to God at the end of Sunday’s Mother’s Day service, I was amazed and gratified when Ken Aten came to the front to tell the congregation that being with the congregation for Sunday school and worship made Sunday the most exciting day of his week.