If you sleep in enough churches, you’re going to get some
church on you. If accomplishing nothing else, the Fuller Center has been my
salvation. After seeing the beauty of humanity unfold from the hands of God as
a witness while being a guest in so many of His houses along this road I have taken Him
to heart. I have a church at home and in recent years made great strides in
understanding His mystery through study and devotion.
I keep this blog, so when informed that today was my turn
to do so for the FCBA site, I thought I could get by with regurgitating some of my
incredibly clever and entertaining ruminations already published. Then I went
to services here in the Syracuse Plymouth Congregational Church, a congregation
of the United Church of Christ. How humbling. I wasn’t crying; I got some
church in my eye.
Instead of my words, I share those of Jim Vedder’s “Call to
Worship”:
“Gather us in,
the lost and the lonely,
the broken and breaking,
the tired and aching
who long for the nourishment
held in your hands.
Gather us in,
The done and the doubting,
the wishing and wondering,
the puzzled and pondering
who long for the company
held in your hands.
Gather us in,
the proud an pretentious,
the sure and superior,
the never inferior
who long for the leveling the
held in your hands.
Gather us in,
the bright and the bustling,
the stirrers, the shakers,
the kind laughter makers
who long for the deeper joys
held in your hands.
Gather us in,
from corner or limelight,
from mansion or campsite,
from fears and obsession,
from tears an depression,
from untold excesses,
from treasured successes,
to meet, to eat,
to be given a seat,
to be joined to the vine,
be offered new wine,
become like the least,
to be found at the feast.
Gather us in!”
You can count me in.
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