Today has been a day of waiting…Last night (Saturday) Emily began to feel like the time was near for our granddaughter to make her grand appearance. So we have been waiting…Calls to birthing center, reports, and distance…Steve’s mother arrived just after noon and she now is part of the vigil. Updates will be coming, probably sooner than later.
The above situation meant that we could not stray far from home base, so we have been hanging around. This morning Nancy and I did drive through the area looking for a church with a service that was just starting, and we found a Presbyterian Church on Friendly Street. There was no outward indication of service times, but people were going in so we assumed that the appointed hour was near. When we walked in and identified ourselves as visitors we were warmly greeted and then asked “Which service would you prefer? The contemporary or the traditional?” Needless to say this piqued my curiosity so we asked for more information and were told that if we turned right we could worship in a traditional format in the larger sanctuary, but if we turned left we could worship in a contemporary format in the smaller chapel. Same hour, same campus, but two congregations.
My sensibility wounded, I did not know what to do—which should WE vote for? But we could not have both, so chose the smaller, which turned out to be fairly traditional itself, but obviously it was attempting to appeal to a particular clientele. There was a very well done drama, a children’s message (2 children were cajoled into coming forward, much to their discomfort, and they heard how Christianity can be compared to a pickle), a sharing time and a sermon, as well as some well presented but pretty tame praise songs. The people did chuckle when I stood up during the sharing, introduced myself and Nancy as visitors, and explained that if we made a sudden exit it should not be taken personally but would mean our cell phones (set on buzz) had gone off to inform us that our daughter was on the way to the hospital.
The closing song for the service was about being one body and one spirit—a reality, but one I felt not well supported by the division and forced choice of contemporary or traditional… Neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, contemporary or traditional-when will the church at large learn to live that out?
I was very saddened to hear on the news about a shooting in a Jewish center in Seattle and am praying for the community. And in the midst of it all we are called to be peacemakers…