“Your Presence Is Requested”

Acts 2:42-47

September 25, 2005

St. Paul United Methodist Church

Rev. John A. Fleming

I don’t remember my first experience at a worship service. Since I don’t, I called my mother and asked her about it. I knew that she would remember. I am not sure what I was expecting to hear, but what I heard is not what I expected. I did not expect to hear that minutes after I was born on that cold February day, that my mother rushed me out of the Jackson- Madison County General Hospital, on her way downtown to our church where she used my dad’s key to get in the sanctuary doors. I didn’t expect to hear that once she was inside the sanctuary, that she rushed down the aisle with me in my blanket and with birth pains still lingering, on her way to the altar where she lifted me heavenward and gave my life to God. I didn’t expect to hear that. But I did expect to hear that my mother took me to church a week or so after I was born, sat in her usual place in the congregation, and made sure that I didn’t interrupt the worship service. At the very least, I expected my mother to remember my baptismal day where she, flanked by my brother and my sister and my dad, standing there at the altar in front of our two pastors, Rev. Jimmy Moore and Dr. Paul Lyles. I expected to tell me that that was one of my early worship services.

Instead my mother said, “Well, pretty much you didn’t got to a worship service until you were five.” I asked, “What?” Fleeing through my mind were the wasted worship services, the fifty-two worship services a year for five years. The math tells me that that is at least two hundred and sixty worship services. My mother gently said, “There was no such thing as a children’s sermon back then and the practice of the church was for children to come to worship when they were five.” Mother continued, “There was even a congregational picture taken on the church’s one hundred and fiftieth birthday. You are not in the picture because you did not want to leave the nursery.” I was not expecting to hear those words from my mother when I asked her about my first worship service.

Well, since the age of five, I have been trying to make up for lost time. I can almost count on my hands and toes the number of weeks in my thirty-seven years when I have not been somewhere in a worship service praising God and thanking God for the things He has done in my life. Even when I take my annual vacation in July, those two weeks, one of those Sundays, I skip, usually because we are in Gulf Shores. The second week, I go to a worship service somewhere, usually with my mom and dad. You might say that worship is a part of my DNA. It is just deep inside of me and a part of who I am.

Thinking about worship, a preacher said that the chief purpose of our lives it to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. We are not here to please ourselves, you might say. We are here to please God. I don’t know where that is more vividly expressed than in those places where people gather in all kinds of places and circumstances to worship God and to celebrate God’s goodness among us.

Certainly it was true of the early church. In our lesson taken from the second chapter of the book of Acts, Luke tells us that just after the gift of the Spirit had been given to the apostles, the church formed. What the church did when it got together was that it devoted itself to the apostles’ teaching. Luke tells us that the early church was always together and had things in common. He tells us that the church sold their possessions and goods and gave them away to those who needed them the most. He says that day by day, as they spent much time together in the temple, the church broke bread at home and ate their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having the goodwill of all the people. Then, to put an exclamation point on what was happening in the early days, Luke tells us that day by day, the Lord added to their number those who were being saved.

I wonder if it was really like that? I think that I should tell you that Luke wrote these words forty years after the fact. I don’t know if it was really like that or if it was the way that

Luke hoped one day that it would be. What I do know is that this is a great picture of the church, a group of people who worshiped together. Worship, you see, is the heartbeat of any congregation and it is what I would like to talk with you about today. If it is all right with you this morning, I would like to say why I think that your presence at worship is important.

First, to worship is to take the time. Luke writes, “Day by day, they spent much time in the temple together.” For the past thirty years, there have been many studies put together that give us preachers worship statistics. The Gallap poll is one of those. This poll has been telling us that forty to forty-five percent of American adults attend a worship service at least once a week. I wonder about that. If forty to forty-five percent of people are attending worship, that means that they are bringing their children. If forty to forty-five percent of adults in Little Rock came with their children, there wouldn’t be enough room in our churches. Our pews would be more full. Statistics are statistics. The truth is that we have to make worship attendance a high priority.

No doubt you’ve heard the old preacher’s joke about the mother who went to wake her son up for church one Sunday morning. She told him that it was time for him to get up and to get ready. He protested. He pulled the covers up to his chin and his mother quickly pulled them down again. The boy said, “Mother, I don’t want to go to church today.” She asked him why and he replied, “I don’t like getting dressed up. Besides that, there are some people there who are mean to me. Give me three reasons why I should go to church.” His mom said, “Okay. First, you have to go because it is something that we have always done. Second, you have to go to church because you need to learn about God and His love. And third, you have to go to church because you are the pastor!” Is it all right for me to say this? There are some Sundays, that if I had the chance, I would stay home and sleep in or go to the lake. Church attendance is a commitment to me, not because I am paid to do it. I worship God because of the great and wonderful things that He has done for me. I want to thank God for His gifts to me. You know this, there are so many things that demand your attention, that want our allegiance. So, you have to make worship a priority.

A radio sports announcer asked if anyone would be willing to give up sports for two years in exchange for two million dollars. No sports meant no games, no radio, no newspaper, no ESPN, no Tuesday morning discussions after Monday night’s football game. Nothing. One fan called in and said, “I wouldn’t give up sports for 25 million dollars!” By the way, I would! The fan said, “Sports is the first thing that I look for in the paper. It is the first place that I go to on the internet. Sports is my life!” What would it be like if we said the same thing about the church? So to worship is to make the time and the commitment.

The second thing that I want to say to you today is that to worship means to get together Luke writes, “All who believed were together and had all things in common.” I have heard what people have said through the years. They have said, “I can worship God without coming to this building.” I think that they are right. I heard someone say that they felt closest to God up on a mountain with a blue sky and snow on the ground. Other folks feel closer to God on a beach, with the gentle waves rolling in. I like that, too. The truth is that we are called to be a community of faith and a family. A family means a connection. A family means that there is cooperation. A family also means that sometimes that there is conflict. A family mans that there is consensus. When a member of the family is not here, we miss them. Now, the church is not perfect because it is filled with people. That is why I say to those who like to point out that there are hypocrites in the pews, “Then come on in and join us. You will feel right at home!” We were never meant to spend our lives alone. We are supposed to be together.

One of my favorite television shows is a re-run now. In fact, it’s so old that you have to watch it on the television station TV Land instead of one of the other channels. No doubt you remember the show Cheers. The show was set in a Boston bar owned by a former Red Sox pitcher, Sam Malone. I loved the show, but I love the words of its theme song more. They say something to us. Here they are: Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got. Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot. Wouldn’t it be nice to get away? Sometimes you want to go where everybody knows your name. And they’re always glad you came. You wanna go where you can see troubles are all the same. You wanna go where people know, people are all the same. You wanna go where everyone knows your name.

A preacher tells the story of what happened one Sunday morning in his church. He was making his way to put his sermon notes on the pulpit. It was early and still dark in the sanctuary. People were starting to gather, to visit with one another. The preacher noticed a woman who was sitting alone, where she and her husband always sat. Of course he knew her. Her husband had just died, suddenly and unexpectedly. It was fresh. In fact, the funeral had just been the day before in that same sanctuary. The preacher walked up to the woman and gently said, “I didn’t expect to see you here this morning.” She looked up at her pastor and said, “Where else could I be? Today I need my church more than ever!” About that time, her friends were beginning to walk down the aisle toward her. To worship means to get together. To worship means to be there for one another. To worship means to share one another’s burdens.

Finally, let me say that to worship means to be accountable to someone. A preacher that I know tells the story of what happened when his five year old son came home from Sunday school announcing that he never planned to go back to Sunday school ever again. Being the son of a preacher, he saw the problem brewing and so he said, “Tell me, why do you not like Sunday school? Is it your teacher? You know, I can do something about that!” The five year old said, “No, dad, it’s not that. I love my teacher.” The preacher continued, “Then is it the lesson?” The boy said that it wasn’t the lesson. The preacher kept asking his questions. He asked, “Is someone picking on you? Is Sunday School too early in the morning? What is it, son?” He said, “Dad, it’s none of those things. It’s just that I have been the only one in my class for five straight Sundays and I don’t like that!” The preacher admitted that he was made at the parents of the five year olds in the church. Did you know that that five year old is now an ordained minister in the United Methodist Church?

I worry about Annie Grace and her commitment to Jesus Christ. Right now she wakes up on Sunday with a gleam in her eye and she asks me, “Daddy, is today Church day?” When I say yes, she says, “I love church day, Daddy!” I hope that she always will. Until she is old enough to decide for herself about such things, it is my job to bring her here.

I cannot tell you, they don’t make the words strong enough for me to tell you how important it is to me, as your minister, to see you here to worship. Worship is what we are supposed to do. Being here, giving God our presence is what we have promised to do. Praising God is what we were meant to do. Let us pray.