As I walked in, I realized that I hadn't been to church in a month! I'm glad I did this project, but it's not always fun visiting a new church by yourself, especially when you don't believe a lot of what's being said during the sermon. Still, I committed to this for a reason. I was glad to be following through with my plan that morning.
The service reminded me of the Catholic service I attended a couple of months ago (you can read about that here) in its rigidity, its weekly Eucharist, and the formality of the service. One thing that I liked about Grace even before I attended was the effort the staff members made to make visitors feel welcomed by providing a Get Acquainted document on their website with the hopes that it would make all of the rituals and processes a little less confusing and foreign. Of course, I still fumbled through the service, failing at my attempt to look natural.
The readings were all on the End Times: Isaiah 65 17-25, which paints a picture of what the redeemed kingdom will look like; Thessalonians 3:6-13, which exhorted the members of the young church to continue living their lives and not putting down everything to wait for Jesus to return, which many of them were doing; and Luke 21:5-19, in which Jesus warns his disciples of things that must happen before the end can come ("Nation will rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be great earthquakes...") When I realized this sermon would be on the End Times, I braced myself (excitedly) for a much more liberal interpretation of End Times prophecies than I've heard at my church.
I'm going to go off on a little tangent. The End Times!! I don't remember being terribly fixated on when Jesus would return before we moved here (though I remember sermons on it). Sidenote to the sidenote: Brief church-going history for me [in order]: 6 years at a Presbyterian church, 2 years at a Four Square church, 3 years at a Vineyard church, 5 years at a Methodist church, then 7 years at the Bible church I have attended where I live now, plus summers at a Methodist or Congregational church with my gradma. My parents weren't just indecisive; we moved a few times. I'm guessing that the Four Square church talked a lot about Jesus' return, but it wasn't until we began going to the Bible church here when I was 15 that it became preached to me again and I began taking it in more. Basically, the church I'm at right now is very Biblical. I love the pastor because he really works to remain true to the Bible- all of it, even those counter-cultural passages like the ones above. I always trusted his teaching and I'm sure that he is sincere in his beliefs. My apprehension about the idea of an Apocalypse has nothing to do with any cooky presentation or weird twist on Scripture. I've just never longed for Jesus' return the way that my parents or some people I know do. The idea of earthquakes, plagues, an antichrist, and even Jesus "rescuing" his followers from this world scared me. Not to mention my abhorrence of the thought that all the believers would be rescued, but all of my nonchristian friends, no matter how lovely or gracious or helpful, would be tormented here on earth, then sent for more torment in hell. I avoided learning about the End Times scripture partly because I figured my time was better spent trying to live for God in the here and now and let him worry about when he was going to fulfill his prophecies. Then there's the Dispensationalists who search for signs that God is returning, or when signs are not showing up, force them in the hope that they will speed up God's return (i.e. supporting Israel no matter how unfair they are with Palestine because you believe that they are the ones who are vital to God's plan of returning- I read a book several years ago on this, Whose Land? Whose Promise). I haven't been able to really ignore End Times prophecy, however, because my parents (and some friends) are really into it. My mom actually thought that Obama may have been the antichrist. She's taken a 2 year Bible study on Revelation and considers herself quite the expert, often saying things to me like "There really are so many signs right now that the End is near." Then there's my dad, who pipes into discussions on future plans, even for things as mini as weekends away, with this comment "Well you never know for sure. Jesus might return before then!" And he's being dead serious. So, with my notions of what Apocalypse sermons meant, I really wondered how this Episcopal pastor would tread on the waters of End Times scripture.
Indeed, it was different. The preacher said "Excessive concern about the End Times is a distortion of God's word." Whoa! On the gospel passage, he said that many get excited and believe that Jesus is naming things that must happen before the Day of Judgment can come, but that he thinks they are taking it too literally. He believes that when Jesus says "As for these things that you see, the days will come when not one stone will be left upon another; all will be thrown down," Jesus was encouraging the disciples (and us) to remember that all we see will turn to dust, but that we need to place value in the everlasting and do our best to live every day dwelling in the fruits of the Spirit, not fixated on when the End will come. The preacher acknowledged that to live looking ahead, waiting impatiently for the End, and trying to be fully here and contributing to this world is impossible. "We are called to serve God in this world, not to sit and look to the sky for signs." He said this wonderfully un-dispensationalist (I'm sure there's a word for that) statement: "The future belongs to God, and that's all I really need to know."
There always seem to be some "I'm new here" blunders, and this Sunday was no exception. During communion, I went forward, scanning the people who were getting Eucharised in front of me to try and see how it was done here, thinking "I should have read the pdf document more carefully!" I remembered that you were supposed to place your right hand over your left to receive the wafer, and then you'd get to dip it into the goblet of wine... right? Actually, you keep it in your hands like that and the guy in charge of the blood of Jesus will pick it up, dip it in the wine, then feed it to you. It all happened so fast! I realized as he was moving the half-soaked wafer from the gold goblet to my confusedly opened mouth that he was going for the tongue. I moved my mouth to prepare for landing, but somehow my teeth got in the way and he bumped into them. Then, I about bit his finger off, trying to move again. He awkwardly said, "Sorry!" then I moved along.
Then, after the wafer was down and communion had ended, the congregation stood up and began doing what I thought was the greeting part of the sermon. I thought it was a strange part of the service to be greeting (they'd not had a greeting portion earlier in the service), but I went along with it. When someone behind me shook my hand and said something, I said "Good! How are you?" then another hand was reaching towards me for a shake, this time the owner of the hand was more articulate. "Peace." Ohhhh, this was a congressional reminder that because we had been cleansed and forgiven, we now had peace. I caught on after that :) "Peace... peace... peace..."
Other notable things about this visit were the music and the aggressive style of making me feel welcome. Because of those same acoustics that helped make my high school choir sound so heavenly, the music was stunning (and the choir talented). I was given a hand out on a Grace Cathedral concert series. It is nice of them to loan their majestic venue out to musicians, or really, the community. Also, the level of "We've got to meet the new girl" here was comparable to the level at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church. Both churches had one or two staff members eying congregants like hawks, making sure they noticed strangers. Once a newbie was identified, after the service, the newbie was sure to get a firm hand shake, a welcome gift bag, a guided tour down toward the lobby area, then refreshments. No newbie can opt out of any of those things, not with the skilled salesmen the churches have on staff. Haha! I will say, it made me feel welcomed, but maybe slightly guilty, since I will not be returning, at least not for a church service.
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