Even in Summer?

Fr. Ray Kasch

           No one comes right out and asks the clergy this question but it is implied by the behavior of many. I once served as an assistant in a very large historic church where many of the lay leadership felt no compulsion whatsoever against “taking the summer off”. They returned in the fall as if their spiritual lives were connected to the academic calendar. This meant that for three months they were away from Word and Sacrament and so they would want the Church to arrange dynamic presentations in the fall to jump-start their spiritual lives. As the kids say today, “HELLOOOOOO .......what’s wrong with this picture?”

          The Apostles said of the LORD, “In him we live and move and have our being” (Acts9:9) which means that God is our life, our environment, like water to a fish and air to a bird. How do you “take time off” from your environment? Some will protest that they can worship God on a hike or at the golf course as well as they can in church but that often repeated excuse is simply untrue. How many baptisms have you seen on a hike and at which hole do they administer Holy Communion on the golf course? No, “taking time off” is an excuse for being partially committed and as Jeff Foxworthy says, the dead opossum that you see in the road is an example of being partially committed.

The wonder of God’s mercy is that He does not “take time off” from us and from His world. Where would we be if God were only partially committed to us? What if the lesson this Sunday was, “I will bless your going out and your coming in, your rising up and your lying down.......except during the summer and then you are on your own for three months.”  The Church would rightfully cry out “Lord have mercy.” God’s love, forgiveness and mercies are new every morning and we should bless Him that He views us as His children and not as obligations from which He needs a regular break.

The Presbyterians have a wonderful statement in their catechism that the main purpose of life is to love God and to enjoy Him forever. How well that captures the essence of the Gospel but how different that is from the experience of many who see worship as a duty rather than a privilege and joy. What is the answer? How do we move from duty to love and enjoyment? How do we move from wanting to take time off to having great expectation about worship? Some say it is by changing the externals. Better choirs, greater buildings, more upbeat sermons. But then we must ask how large was Jesus’ choir or how magnificent was his building or how trendy were his sermons?  Jesus knew that love and enjoyment of God comes from within, from a new heart, so His focus was to convert our hearts not to entertain us. He calls us to be disciples not an audience, He seeks an intimate relationship with us not an occasional acquaintance. So the place to begin is within each of us. We must offer our hearts to God and ask him to refresh, revive, to heal us from within. As the great hymn puts it, “let Thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to Thee.” One of the truths upon which every branch of Christianity can agree is that we all are in great need of a refreshing revival of the Holy Spirit. “Lord let it begin with me and I will be a Christian even during the summer. Amen.”