Weekly Update | October 09, 2022
Why bother to go to church? Clearly many people choose not to worship, and they have a variety of reasons for their choice. But if you are reading this, I assume that you do attend church services at least occasionally. Let me offer some ideas for you to chew on.
First, attending church allows you to make a witness to your faith. It acts as a statement that you are a baptized believer who values a relationship with our Savior and Redeemer. I suspect that this act represents one of the most effective ways you can testify to importance of Christ in your life.
And it allows you to be part of a community of fellow believers. Most people long to be part of something important and greater than themselves, and, moreover, they long to be in contact with others of the same mind. As the cathedral parish enters a time of transition and change, being together in prayer and fellowship will bless our community in many ways.
The Sunday liturgy consists of two parts, one of which is the Service of the Word. In the reading of scripture, the sermon, and the personal reflections evoked thereby the Risen Christ speaks to us. In what other setting does this dependably happen? How often have you been shaped and formed by the scriptures and the teaching based on them?
The other part of the liturgy is the Service of Holy Communion. There the Risen Christ makes himself available to us in the consecrated Bread and Wine so that he lives in us and we live in him. Reception of the blessed Sacrament represents a major hallmark of Christian discipleship and serves to anchor us in resurrectional life.
Church attendance empowers us for service in the name of Christ. It is like food for a starving person and water to the desperately thirsty. And we leave after our encounter with the Risen One in worship ready to love and serve the Lord in our homes, work, and community.
My home church had two Latin sayings over the entrances into the building. There were “Domus Dei” and “Porta Coeli.” They translate as House of God and Gate of Heaven. With my ninth grade Latin I would read those mottos every week. And I realized that they were truth, that what happened to me in Sunday worship make that event the House of God and the Gate of Heaven. I hope you do and will find that true for you, too.
Bishop Frank