My family finally
joined “the club” this spring. Our
9-year-old middle son wanted to play baseball.
It turns out, it’s a lot like Church!
It comes with a financial investment to participate, then all the equipment,
and of course—the schedules! [We’ve
recently been in the throes of a 6-day, 5-game nightmare where wind and
snow-outs meant games “jumped randomly” into our previously well-arranged plans
with reckless abandon.] Before we knew
it, baseball owned us, interrupting meals and displacing weekly traditions by
demanding junk-food binges and ice cream suppers because “we had to eat
something quickly.”
Yes. This is literally our “first sports rodeo.” We observe more experienced families regularly
bemoaning, “When will it end,” as the season is just beginning. We notice some families—like ours—have religious
commitments; but while I was sure to make Sunday worship, I must admit, I
skipped out on some other things that I would have otherwise been present for because
I now have a sports league in my life! I’ve
even heard “gratitude” that our league isn’t so intense, so that if you miss a
practice or a game you aren’t demoted—because some of my son’s teammates have multiple
sports; one of his teammates is Jewish and can’t practice or play Friday nights
or Saturdays; and tonight, we’re choosing our son not skip his religious
education class to play in a baseball game.
There are definitely trade-offs and choices.
My wife noticed
several weeks ago—“this must be the new community”—because between cub scouts’
pack meetings, pinewood derby, and den meetings, and now baseball, we see a lot
of the same people. And “our people”
know “other people” because it’s a steady diet of baseball, lacrosse, football,
traveling softball, basketball, …[name your commitments here], and for many of
them it’s in multiples!
So I’m reflecting
on a conversation from Easter Sunday in which a nice family that was
worshipping with our congregation for Easter was chatting with me before
worship began, and pretty well identified this kind of cultural sports-a-thon existence
as “bad” and “wrong”—in addition to Muslims purchasing church buildings and
Jewish neighborhoods were literally expanding.
Maybe they thought I needed to hear them lament how fewer and fewer
Christians seemed to be going to church these days,” so they named as shameful
the reasons why some people don’t attend church, even as they were admitting
they were worshiping just because it was Easter.
I get
it. The Church, frightened by the
merciless talk of “decline,” comes to see the threats to it as any “competition”
that has arisen to its dominance. But we’ve
been talking about this ever since the first stores started opening on Sundays—and
that’s been 50 years or more ago, now!
Frankly, I think the world’s moved on.
And we should, too. I think this
is one of the ways that the world has changed. And it doesn’t make us “bad people” or failed
Christians.
If we focus
on worship attendance as self-interested Church goers, we will entirely miss a
creative and important opportunity, here.
There is a new community which needs the faithful witness of
faith-filled Christian people that is more than just worship attendance.
For our part,
the Church could ably reframe this new world in more helpful ways. We could, for example, disconnect worship
from “sabbath” as Walter Brueggemann observes:
“Sabbath, in the first instance, is not about worship. It is about work stoppage. It is about withdrawal from the anxiety-system of Pharaoh, the refusal to let one’s life be defined by production and consumption and the endless pursuit of private well-being.”
In this
view, churches might even consider cancelling worship to allow people to
experience a broader Sabbath experience.
Ours was a beautiful weekend—weather-wise. There is much to be said for sitting in the
bleachers at the ballfields, basking in God’s glory in a bright,
sunshine-filled sky and comfortable temperatures and a whole community “playing
ball.”
I know! Preachers aren’t supposed to advocate for
playing hooky from worship—people might get the idea that it’s OK. And it’s true, we might have more people in
worship if we could summarily dismiss or dismantle the regular and routine
conflicts from grocery shopping to weekend swap-meets to little league sporting
events and practices. We can name these
things as “bad,” and warn people about the “conflicts” and berate them for
missing “worship.” But for me, these
would be reasons why people might just choose to stay away from Church more
often!
I have handfuls
of people who are regular participants in our congregation who routinely seem
to find it necessary to “confess” to me their Sunday “indiscretions” (choosing other
activities over worship). Maybe they
think this is what I want to hear—or need to hear—that such contrition is or
should be required to remain in good standing, or something. I smile, because I actually know how it
is. Missing worship doesn’t make us bad
people. Especially if we’re:
- Taking a vacation weekend with our spouse who works for a bank and this has been a grueling tax season.
- Participating in a 5k race that raises money for cancer research.
- Attending the wedding of a family friend out of town.
- Taking time away with family to relax; 5 baseball games in 6 days certainly eats up family time.
- Completing 3 weeks of endless overtime.
- Helping a family member move.
- Sitting with a friend in the hospital.
- Spent after a Saturday cutting the grass, working in the yard, helping a neighbor put up a fence, and need a spur-of-the-moment windows-down-drive-through Amish country on Sunday.
These things
may obliterate our worship attendance numbers; but they don’t make us bad
people or failed Christians. They don’t
cause us to lose “Christian market-share,” and perhaps, if people knew this was
really permissible, would improve our standing in the community and our
attendance!
The Church
can cope in this new world, because we’re invested in people and Sabbath and
not just worship. Attendance is helpful,
but it’s not the only measureable goal. The
day was once that the Church actually sought to care for the oppressed and persecuted
and the suffering. And this might be easier
and more attractive than ever! It might simply
be a word of grace when people can’t be present; and offering to hear their
stories when they can.
Because we
believe God is present with us in everything.
Even in community sports leagues and walking a golf course chasing a
ball. Maybe not every Sunday—but at
least some of them.
If we
actually stopped calling people “bad” for missing Church, or the things they do
as “bad,” and sought instead to instill in them Christian values they could
demonstrate wherever they were—we could actually be ahead of the game.
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