by Jason Byassee, February 26, 2014
Jason Byassee
The church exists for worship and mission. One feeds the other and both draw us toward Jesus.
This is a great time of year for both. Our Rwanda team has just returned and our Guatemala team is about to be sent out. We worshiped last Saturday night, February 22, and will worship in a new style on March 1. March 2nd marks the beginning of Lent, 40 days of a lonely road with Jesus on the way to his cross. Worship and mission are the two lungs of the church’s body, and both are full at the moment.
Here is what’s to come: on Saturday night, March 1st, we’ll worship in the chapel at 6:30 with a form of chant called Taize. It is simple, hauntingly beautiful, and unforgettable. Here’s a glimpse of how it sounds. Saturday night is the least utilized portion of our week. Many Christian traditions offer an evening worship service. These experimental gatherings are a way of asking whether Jesus is calling us to worship regularly that evening, perhaps with styles as varied as roots revival, Taize, blue grass, and maybe others (jazz?).
On Ash Wednesday, March 5th, we’ll gather in the Family Life Center for a pancake supper. Strove Tuesday (Mardi Gras in French speaking parts) is a day for feasting before the fast of Lent begins. Sarah Strickland is heading our family life committee now and needs some flapjack flippers–please be in touch with her to volunteer, or view the evite here. We’ll worship in the sanctuary at 7 and receive ashes on our foreheads as a sign of our mortality (“remember you are dust, and to dust you shall return” Gen. 3:19).
Often folks give things up for Lent: chocolate, cussing, being a Carolina fan. But a friend’s church gave me an idea. What if we each gave up something important to us that costs money–coffee, meat, alcohol, meals out, movies. Then we pool that money we would have spent on ourselves and put it toward missions. We have so many things we could contribute to–the Justice family hasn’t yet quite gotten fully funded, our Rwanda and Guatemala teams would love to be more generous in those areas, WeCan and Circles here in the High Country needs further funding.
I propose that we, Boone Methodist, each give up something and then offer what we would have spent in a special offering on Easter Sunday. We’ll have done something small to discipline our desires in (tiny!) imitation of Christ who emptied himself to save us. And we’ll offer enough to make a difference in our generosity as a congregation and in God’s world. We will continue to honor our long tradition of the Thirty Pieces of Silver offering, with this as an extra challenge. What do you think? As ever feel free to offer input: seniorminister@booneumc.org.
Final thing for today: several folks have asked me why church is necessary. Sunday is their sanctuary, they love being with their family uninterrupted (their homes must be more pacific than mine!). This is a beautiful question. It suggests genuine Sabbath rest in those households, and that honors God. Hard questions always do.
Let me tell you a quick story in response. Ellary Smith is Tommy and Tracy’s daughter. She not only sees her parents play music Sundays and practice Wednesdays, she sees them lead with their contagious spirit for Jesus, for our church, and for the marginalized. Ellary has taken to writing praise songs herself. She loves to robe up as an acolyte, to wear the cross, to bear the flame into the world. She loves Sunday School. She loves our church. “She’d live here if we let her,” Tracy joked.
The point of church isn’t to be happier, though it has that effect. It’s not to be a more moral person, though it certainly helps. Church only matters if God is who he says he is in scripture, if we desperately need Jesus to save us, if lingering in God’s presence makes us more human. “The glory of God is a human being fully alive,” St. Irenaeus said way back in the 2nd century. And at Boone Methodist one little girl is more alive as she lingers in God’s presence.
And that’s about the best reason I can give why you, your family, your neighbors, your enemies, everyone you and I know, should join us Sundays, Saturdays, Wednesdays, always.