The Sacredness of Sunday Mornings

mwoodall (54) in life • 7 years ago

Warning, this won't be what you expect...

I grew up as the son of two ministers.
I used to work as a youth minister.
I have provided representation at every level of my church's organization, from local to National.

I no longer go to church.

I've given up the Sunday Morning rush to spend time enjoying the Sacredness that abounds around me. This morning, for example, I had a wonderful conversation with @prairiepinner. Then, we shared breakfast with the Lil' Pinner. After that, we hung out as a family, talked about things, and had some great giggles.

This was a sacred morning.

This was not taken this morning...this is from about a year ago.

You see, @prairiepinner and I have come to learn that our faith (and make no mistake, we are people of faith) doesn't depend on us being in the pews on Sunday morning. In fact, some of the most holy and sacred moments I've ever experienced have been in doing things that aren't even church related.

A few weeks ago, I was in the presence of the Holy as I worked along side other firefighters and paramedics to extricate someone who was trapped and injured after a collision.

I'm grateful to experience the Sacred Presence whenever I'm blessed by the Lil' Pinner's giggles.

God is present and imminent whenever I engage in a deep and meaningful conversation with friends new and old. (God is in fact present and imminent even when the conversation is shallow and pointless...just more easily seen when it is deep and meaningful.)

So, I am no longer going to feel guilty about not being in a pew. It's never really been our thing as a family anyways. The last church we attended on a regular basis as a family didn't look much like church at all.
There was no set order of service.
There wasn't a minister or preacher to lead it.
There were kids everywhere.
We spent as much time talking to each other and learning about each other as we did "worshipping".
It was messy, noisy, and chaotic.

But you know what...

It was all the more sacred for the chaos.

life family christianity church

7 years ago by mwoodall (54)

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mickrmurray (44) · 7 years ago

Enjoyed your post. I have harbored very similar sentiments in recent months. Out of curiosity, how do you think about the church now? And I don't mean the institutional church as it exists in N. America. I mean the church as revealed in the Bible and what that means for modern-day worshippers?

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mwoodall (54) · 7 years ago

I actually read this comment yesterday, but didn't think that I would be able to answer it properly because I was on my phone. Now that I have a real keyboard, lets go!

I should probably start by saying that I am always hesitant to talk "church" online because I don't fit neatly into any category. I am a person of faith who believes in the Sacred and the Holy, but I don't believe in God as the media likes to portray them. There is no big man in the sky (or at least not in any way we can comprehend). I am also a strong believer in the Social Gospel, that we, as Christians, are called to be change in the world. There is no conduit through which the Holy can act except us as Holy and Sacred vessels who each contain a piece of the Holy.

That being said, I am frustrated with evangelicals who seem to think that piousness and righteousness have anything to do with the welcoming arms of Jesus Christ. I am frustrated with mainline protestants who can't seem to get beyond the current state of their buildings. I am frustrated with High Anglicans and Catholics who refuse to acknowledge the sacredness and call to ministry that resides within every person, no matter what is between their legs or who they go to bed with.

None of us are righteous and holy. None of us. Righteousness belongs only to God, and if we have received anything from God, it is a small piece of sacredness that resides deep within every person. When we cannot acknowledge that, then we begin to see people as "other" and we end up with division and quarrel.

As to the specifics of your question, I want you to consider the last faith community we were a part of. It was big enough to be varied, but small enough to be intimate. We ranged in age from newborns to very elderly. We met in a small room where we talked, shared our lives, broke bread together, and wrestled with the reality of the Gospel in the context of our daily lives. When I say that we "wrestled", that's exactly what I mean. We engaged with the texts, looked at it in its contextual and communal complexity, and we fought hard with what we were called to do with the Gospel we were given.

What does it mean for Christians today?

It means that we need to seek out and celebrate the sacredness within each other.

It means that we need to be the church in the world, instead of trying to bring the church to our door. Imagine what it would mean to a 10 year-old hockey/soccer/football player to have a hundred people show up at a Sunday morning game? Instead of saying "Why aren't you in church", we are then telling them that this moment where they are in community with their teammates and working towards a common goal is Sacred and Holy, and their church community celebrates it with them!

It means that the church recognizes that the experience of the Holy isn't limited to Sunday mornings, but that the Holy is ever-present and all that is needed is for us to open ourselves to it.

I don't know if this helps...and I think there's another post coming out of this response, but that's my answer for the moment...

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mickrmurray (44) · 7 years ago

Thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts! A lot of what you're saying resonates with me. And yes, I agree I think a post is merited sometime soon! Would be interested in a continuing dialogue on the topic bc I think it's a relevant one today in a lot of contexts.

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mwoodall (54) · 7 years ago

I just put a REALLLYYY long post up about this if you'd like to check it out!

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thekitchenfairy (71) · 7 years ago

I love this

I am not a Christian but I share your feeling and thinking

I may not go to a house of pray, but i have faith, and I wish I don't have to explain myself to anyone of what I believe in my heart.

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shan-khan (25) · 7 years ago (edited)

Great life..

Please sir follow me

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minnowpond (62) · 7 years ago

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Warning, this won't be what you expect...

The Sacredness of Sunday Mornings