Friday’s thoughts
Sometimes we have come to think of religion as only private, and not public, but it is both. Sometimes we have come to think that there is something lost when private worship goes public. There is some truth to that.
1. Public worship reduces God to a corporate image where as we might have a more refined or a more carefully defined understanding.
2. Public worship holds the danger that politics can have more influence than it should. The pressures and power in a church can make for artificial decisions or arbitrary decisions that have a limited interest in the whole as decisions are made by the few.
3. Public worship can become rigid and habitual. When religion is reduced to a creed it can lose its meaning and purpose.
What is the value of public worship?
1. There is more to God than any one of us can ever know. While we can find God on our own in the quiet of our private spiritual life, we will have only a part of it. Public worship opens us to the fact that there is more to faith than we can see by ourselves.
2. Private worship can become ingrown and inept. When all we do is feed our own needs we can allow religion to blind us to the needs in the world that public awareness will bring to our attention.
3. Public/corporate worship produces a crowd and crowds can be intimidating, but large numbers of faithful and faithfilled people have the potential to make significant changes in the world.
Sunday, Christians all over the world are celebrating the Lord’s Supper. We will gather at the table to be reminded, corporately, who we are. Communion is the one event in the church that blends the corporate and the private.
What does Religion mean to you? Write me at charlesschuster@fcfumc.net. If you are willing to allow others to read your response click on the ‘comments’ box below.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Charles Schuster
