A Tale... (part four and final?)

It was the best of worship services, it was the worst of worship services.

The coffee hour was all good, though. It seemed like everyone stuck around for a while, chatting and joking with each other. Pastor Smith went to change out of his robe, but was intercepted by several people wanting to comment on the sermon.

“I thought that the people who wanted more organ music were just plain stubborn,” said one member. “But that part of the sermon where you said that kind of music is the only kind that opens some people up to God really opened my eyes. I can see where they’re coming from. I hope they can see why I like more contemporary stuff.”

“One would hope and pray,” he replied.

Another woman said, “We should try to be more quiet when we enter the sanctuary, right Pastor? I know I like a little quiet time when the prelude is playing. But I try to think of the buzz of conversation rising to God like incense—like in Holden Evening Prayer, right Pastor?”

“Right you are!” was his reaction.

Mrs. Klopher and Sam were off in a corner—she speaking very animatedly, he listening intently. Pastor Smith had a flash of concern as he walked towards them—he had seen the brief facial exchange between the two during the prayers. But as he came up on the two, they both burst into laughter and shared a hug. “Berta just told me about the time her oldest son crawled all the way from the back to the front of the church—under the pews—during the sermon!” said Sam. “And I was telling her how much her husband meant to me as a Sunday School teacher. You were right, Pastor—people are very different and we should respect that—and even celebrate it. But even with those differences, the really important things are the same for all of us.”

“Sometimes I’ve been known to get it right,” joshed the pastor.

A smile crept across Pastor Smith’s face. People were getting it, he thought. And while he didn’t expect people to go around on tenterhooks, he did feel that they would be more aware of each other’s worship styles. And he knew that it was hard to accommodate a variety of piety in a congregation with one service. That some folks were just not going to be happy with that mixture—no matter how respectful people were of each other.

But he also knew that this was an exceptional group of people, who were more intent on serving God and knowing Jesus than they were on the adiaphora—those things that Luther insisted didn’t matter to salvation. They would do well sharing each other’s piety because they were focused on discipleship.

As for himself, Pastor Smith admitted to God that he had a worship style preference as well. And that he needed to keep aware of that when planning worship, so that hopefully everyone going out into the world after the service would do so with this thought on their minds:

“It was a good worship service!”