In both of this week’s sermons— the one for the website and the other for the parking lot service I zeroed in on four words from the first part of the text from Acts 17.  There the writer, Luke, says that when Paul arrived in Thesslonica on his second missionary journey, he went to the synagogue, “as was his custom”. 

That is a critical description of Paul’s normal religious practice.  In chapter 24 of his other book in the New Testament Luke makes special mention of a trip to the synagogue by Jesus and closes by saying, “as was his custom”.   It seems then that regular worship is an important practice for all persons of faith.

I made mention of the fact that most pastors can look out over their congregation at any given service and know who is missing.  Most of you have a customary place and we are used to seeing you there.

This can result in some interestingly strange behavior, however.  In my first congregation after I was ordained 52 years ago next week, one gentleman had given the money for his pew.   John was nearly blind and so he would proceed down the aisle, feeling for those brass plaques that some churches tack onto every memorial gift give.  He knew that the fifth brass plaque on the end of a pew was his pew.  

 Unfortunately, the floors of the church had to be sanded and refinished which meant the pews had to be removed.  When they were replaced, John’s pew was not returned to its normal place.  When his seating by feel revealed that it was not his pew because no brass plaque was where it should be, he walked out of the church and returned home.  After services several of the men had to unfasten John’s pew and the errant no-plaque pew and exchange them!

As I told the parking lot worshippers Sunday, in my second congregation, I had been there about a year when I discovered that the pulpit side of the congregation was reserved for current and past church council members and their families.  Churches can be strange places!   But why would we expect anything else as they are filled with strange creatures called human beings. 

 Carol Smith, a religion writer in Nashville, TN, has a helpful observation on the customary presence of being in worship.  She says, “Commitment to faith is not reflected in the number of days we can check time off with God on our calendars;  nevertheless it does matter that we set aside time to sit with God.”

Another of my resources remarked about the custom of regularly seeking the presence of God.  This all suggests that a true embrace of mission, a true vision of the future will call us out of our comfort zones, may propel us into places that we would not choose, or may call us to paths that we would not walk if we had a choice. But it also affirms that if we have a clear sense of what we are to be about as Christians, and if we allow the power of the Spirit to lead and empower us, God will bring His future…” 

 In these days of COVID dominated living, may regular worship— virtually or in your car in the parking lot become as customary as wearing masks, regular hand washing and distancing yourself from others.