Sunday is Coming

As far back as I can remember, Sunday meant going to church.  A lot of different churches have been a part of my Sunday goings.  The first one remembered with any clarity was the little matchbox of a country church which maintained the cemetery where my father was laid to rest.  Over the years I went to the church of my baptism, the church of my wedding, the church of my ordination, the church of more funerals than I want to remember, the church which provided me a pulpit to preach, and the church which blesses me in the present moment.   

Some were very small like the first and others were large enough to make this old country boy feel mighty small.  As I recall, all of them had the sense of the holy within and about them.  Each seemed to have a quietness about them that invited my spirit to pray.  To this day it is hard to pass by a church without wondering what it is like inside.  I have memories of peering through the windows of many an old church with a padlock on the front door.  I had a preacher friend who used to collect church bulletins from churches he visited or that he found open in the moment of his passing by.  I often thought about following his example, but instead, I became a collector of memories.   

Today is Sunday and I will be doing what I have done most all the years of my life.  I will be going to church.  I could say I will be going because it is what my Mother taught me to do, but she is gone and I still go.  I go now and have gone for a long time because it has become a place which speaks of belonging.  I belong to those folks who sit around me and struggle with me to stay in tune during the singing.  I now belong to that crowd that gets restless when the preachers runs past too many stop signs in the sermon.  I belong to the God who is worshiped there.  I have found He can be worshiped anywhere on any day, but there is something that renews and stirs my spirit as nothing else can do on those Sunday mornings when I gather with the people of God that gather in those churches made holy by divine presence and sacred memories.