I’ll be Frank…I don’t come to Church to actually worship. I come to church to remind me of the need to worship. To learn how to tune up my worship engine…or find the strength and support to begin a spiritual overhaul. I come to church to learn how my faith can be stronger…to challenge unproductive beliefs…and reinforce the positive ones. I come to Church to be reminded that the sum of all my words, actions, loves, hates, passions, joys, and inactions during the last week was my worship (past tense). I want to come to Church, to worship honestly…to laugh and cry and console and celebrate with regard to that worship…to be accountable and contemplative about that worship. I come to Church be reminded that I have another opportunity to (future tense) worship following the benediction and that I (me, not God) needs me to take advantage of it.
No, I don’t come to Church every Sunday to worship the Divine. I don’t come to Church to avoid hell or get into heaven. I don’t come to Church to learn to love God…I come to learn to love. I come to learn how to change this life, our life, this week, now, for the better. The next life is really not worthy of my thought. The next life is frankly a distraction. I’ll work to “be still” and trust the voice inside inviting me to live in the Divine flow today, for the sake of those with me today, and simply have faith in where that flow takes me tomorrow. Whether that tomorrow is, literally, tomorrow…or an eternity of tomorrows.