Present Day Worship

In some ways retirement has made the Sabbath more of a day of rest.  It really never was such while I was actively serving as the pastor of church.  It was usually a day which started extremely early and ended long after dark had settled around me.  Preachers, or pastors do not usually experience much rest on Sunday.  It is the main work day of the week.  It is like several Mondays rolled into one twelve or fifteen hour day.    

Nowadays with no congregation demanding a sermon or worship service, Sundays are experienced at a much different pace.  And throw in the the fact that the last year has seen more Sundays with church doors being locked than unlocked and that different pace is more like standing still.  And while some pastor friends have created a new routine which now includes being in the pew on Sunday morning, some still find themselves in a place which would have been impossible to predict a few years ago.   

As one who has not yet found the way back to the confines of Sunday worship in a sanctuary, I have been pushed to a place where worship is experienced in new and different ways.  Structured moments of worship have been replaced by embracing the ones which present themselves in a more spontaneous manner.  Songs once sung loudly with the congregation are now sung softly in my spirit.  Hearing the Word of God comes not in the sanctuary through the ritual, but through the moments of divine revelation which abound in every day.  One day I know I shall return to the sanctuary.  My heart longs for it.  For the moment I have been put in a different place, but it is not one empty of opportunities for worship or for hearing the voice of God.