Sharing the Savior’s Story

One Church Service--Two Impressions

Poor purposes. I've seen poor purposes, even among church-goers. Consider the man who goes to church on a day much like today. At the beginning of the service he hears the organist miss a note during the prelude. Oooh, that missed note grates on his nerves. He sees a teenager talking when everybody is supposed to have their heads bowed in silent prayer. “What is this younger generation coming to?” he asks himself. He feels like the usher is watching to see what he put in the offering plate and that makes his blood boil, too. He catches the pastor, by count, in no less than five grammatical errors, including a dangling preposition, an indefinite antecedent, and two wrong verb tenses. Can you imagine? He calls himself educated. As he slips out through the side door during the closing hymn, he promises himself, “Never again will I come back here. What a bunch of stupid clods and hypocrites.”

Compare that with the man who also goes to church on a day much like today. At the beginning of the service he hears the organist begin with an arrangement of Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring.” Its splendor sends a shiver up his spine. He is proud to see a young girl speak to her friend about prayer and the difference it has made in her life. He is glad to see the church was sharing, via a special offering, with the hungry children in the African country of Sudan. He especially appreciates the sermon that Sunday, for it answers a question that had been in the back of his brain for a long time. As he walked out the doors, he said to himself, “How can anyone enter this place and not feel God’s love?”

It isn’t necessary, I imagine, to share that both of these men went to the same church on the same Sunday. They heard the same organ music, saw the same girl, listened to the same sermon. They both came away with something. But they didn’t come away with the same thing. One came away with what God wanted him to hear. The other came away with—something different. The first man had a poor purpose in his life. His purpose at worship was not to glorify God or to uplift his neighbor, but to be entertained and pleased by a performance by pastor and parish. He had a poor purpose, and because he did, he went away empty.

Excerpt from The Lutheran Hour broadcast of: February 9, 2003