Spiritual Nourishment
“Well, another one bites the dust,” said a nearby parent. “Gee, that’s two in two weeks.”
What she was referring to were members of the Cincinnati Boy Choir becoming faint and passing out during a performance. The “flu bug” coupled with the stress and strain of performing make for ideal conditions for this to happen.
Leaving the concert the man ahead of me asked another man about the condition of the boy who passed out. “Oh, he’s fine,” said the man. “He’s been sick all week and hasn’t had anything to eat since last night.” (That was about twenty-four hours without any nourishment.)
Driving home I thought of the lovely performance I had just heard and also the boy who had become faint. I also thought of individuals I hadn’t seen at worship service. I thought of the reasons people stay away. We become busy doing other things; that certainly does happen in these busy times. Perhaps we stay away because we are overburdened, preoccupied with a problem, upset over something, feeling sorry for ourselves… “spiritually not feeling well.” And when this happens the tendency is not to eat.
We stay away from one of the main sources of spiritual nourishment – Sunday worship. We miss the spiritual nourishment that comes from being around other Christians; singing uplifting hymns; listening to the choir sing and bells ring; the children’s time when almost anything can happen; taking part in corporate prayer; meditating as the organ is played; reading along as the Good News is read from the Bible; being challenged, stimulated, inspired, comforted…as the Word is preached.
CONSIDER, as with those boys who passed out from the lack of physical food, we, too, can pass out from the lack of spiritual food which comes to us in worship. The consciousness we lose will not be to the world around us but the presence of God around us in the world.
Someone said that when it’s the hardest to pray we should pray the hardest. I would add: when we don’t feel like coming to worship, that is when we need to come to worship the most.
A long time ago a spiritually hungry person did come to worship and upon leaving others heard him say:
“I rejoiced with those who said to me, ‘Let us go to the house of the Lord’.” (Psalm122:1)
Rev. Wendell Mettey
11/18/2013
