Reflections on Worship, June 22

I really enjoyed worship on Sunday, mostly because our young people shared with us. Maybe it's my experience as a youth minister, but I just love the experience of worshiping -- really worshiping -- with young people. Certainly it is a challenge to try to shape a service that is (hopefully) meaningful for wide age groups.

But I don't think it's the challenge that I really love; I just love to watch our young people experience God right in front of our eyes. In fact, I get excited by the prospect; I probably work a little harder even. And I'm not alone: I remember watching Billy Graham give a sermon directed at teenagers once; he had a different energy level. And others over the years have suggested something similar of Pope John Paul II, especially at the World Youth events he frequently attended.

Don't get me wrong -- I enjoy working with people of all ages. But there's something special about working with young people (roughly anyone under the age of 25), especially in the church. And I thought we did well at that on Sunday. Listening to the sermon, I was surprised by how long it was; then again, I've never led a service in which bake time was a significant issue. I hope that the lesson of the brownies was clear for everybody; for the possible cynics, I was not attempting to bribe our young ones with chocolate (there will be other more appropriate times for that). The cooking idea came to me like most of my sermon ideas, after some reading and prayer, after some brain-storming, and while I was in the shower.

In fact, I kind of liked the cooking angle. I think we'll try it again if an opportunity arises -- perhaps fresh bread on World Communion Sunday. Too often when Protestants look down their noses at Orthodox Christians, with all their smelly incense, we forget that we learn and experience things by smell, including God sometimes.

And I enjoyed the music of the service. I received several positive comments about the little Elvis riff on "How Great Thou Art"; I do hope nobody was terribly offended by it. It just felt right to me at that moment -- perhaps I was wrong, but I don't think so. Occasionally I call an audible -- or in more religious language, I let the Holy Spirit move me. And I enjoyed the duet Leigh Anne and I sang -- I hope many others did too; I'd never sung it before, but I've wanted to for several years. Getting to work with Leigh Anne and Brooks made it worth the wait though; and then some, probably.

As the sermon should have made clear on Sunday, the music that fills our sanctuary on Sunday mornings, from the organ Prelude to the choir's anthem to the hymns to vocal duets to anything else we can imagine is a miracle. Together we share the gifts that God has blessed us with (all of us, each in our special way), and it is beautiful, and often moving. A glimpse of the hand of God moving through our midst -- and moving us in the process -- each time we meet.