The Fixer

While some traditions do not have altars in sanctuaries, and while it is a rather common omission in many of today's contemporary minded churches, it will be a sad day indeed when altars disappear completely from the interior of the church.   When I was growing up in the small Methodist church settings, the altar was used mostly for prayers at the conclusion of the Sunday evening worship service, at least quarterly for the Holy Sacrament, and at the end of every service during the week of the annual revival. 

 

Any preacher who did not invite folks to the altar during the revival was regarded by most as not being much of a preacher.  I have sat through more than just a few of those services where the invitation seemed to be an unending event.  If all the verses of "Just As I Am" did not bring some soul from the pew to the altar, it simply meant the song leader started back over with the first verse.  Many a soul has hung on to the pew with knuckles turning white to keep feet from walking the aisle.  And while some folks could be counted on to go to the altar and give themselves to Jesus every year during the revival, such did not take away from the fact that there were those times when lives were surely changed by the moments on bended knee.

 

Given the mindset of the church today and the influence of the culture around it which has such shaping power, it is hard to imagine that there might ever be a return to those days.  Such a truth is even more sad than the disappearance of the altar from the church.  People have not changed so much that kneeling now and again with an broken and repentant heart would not be a good and spiritually healthy moment.  Who is still needed is Jesus and the power He brings to us for a life lived beyond the grasp of  the power of sin.  And, of course, dealing with kneeling is not nearly as big a problem as dealing with the reality of sin and the need for Jesus.   What politicians try to fix with programs is really a spiritual issue which can only be fixed by the One who fixed us in our Mother's womb.