October 12th, 2008 – Don’t worry (Keep praying)

Her second Sunday back the first change Pastor Dayle suggested, that she learned worshipping at other churches during her sabbatical, was moving announcements from the start of the service to the end. For me, even as a change today, it didn’t feel awkward. The move linked Creator Praise more closely to the rest of the service and kept worship focused to the end.

For the Psalmody we sang Shepherd Me, O God. It related to one of this morning's themes of worry or fear with the refrain:

Shepherd me, O God, beyond my wants, beyond my fears, from death into life.

Pastor Dayle preached about a book she is reading Kathleen Norris’ Acedia & Me, an intensely personal memoir of and meditation on the author’s 30-year marriage to poet David Dwyer. Acedia is a word describing a soul-weariness Norris discovered in her early thirties, not to be confused with depression which can have a more medical root.

The sermon wove this back to discoveries Pastor Dayle made in talks with others over the past months. She wanted to find out detailed reasons why some do not feel a need to worship in church on Sundays.


She found that, from the perspective of those she talked to who don’t attend, many point to a lack of caring and authenticity as keeping them from church. What worked in the past to draw people into the church is not working to attract these non-attendees to worship.

The sermon moved to the Gospel reading in Matthew 22. The reading was a parable about a king giving a wedding banquet where all are eventually invited but the king instructs this attendents to bind one of the guests, who was not wearing a wedding robe, hand and foot and cast him out into the outer darkness.

For many are called but few are chosen.

Augustine thought the missing robe was a metaphor for love, Luther thought it a metaphor for faith. Pastor Dayle urged us to bring our whole selves to the wedding banquet which she talked about as worship on Sunday. She also understood that is not always possible and then she encouraged just showing up to pray. If we are worried we can offer our concerns to God in prayer.

Mary gave the second Bible Study on Ruth after the service. Nita remarked that these Bible Studies probably benefit presenters as much, if not more, than the participants. As a presenter of the first of these Ruth Bible Studies that started the series off well, she spoke from experience.

I did not antipate the remarkable ties of the work and planning Mary did in preparation for this Adult Education hour. Of course her material related to the book of Ruth but it also informed the theme of the upcoming WELCA Women's retreat, and related to the Wednesday book group's discussion of East of Eden and to the Reconciling in Christ discernment process we are currently pursuing as a congregation.

What the participants shared of their lives today humbled the group. There were moments of extraordinary fellowship when personal stories were told or when there was witness to the actions of others in the congregation. For example, Ruth spoke of Toni and her devotion to Bethany and Toni's heroic actions that sprung from that devotion.

We closed with prayer, in gratitude of those who worship with us and are our friends.