Reflections on Late to Church

This past weekend Kelly and Zoe were at a wedding in Richmond (congrats to Lauren and Chip) so that meant me and Davis had a guys' weekend at home. It's amazing how easy just having one kid feels after juggling two for the past six months.

On Sunday we were, per usual, running late to church. I came in during the first song of a four-song worship set. As a general rule, I prefer to get to church early, be settled in, flip through the bulletin, and prepare myself to really be present to what's about to happen as I enter into worship.

But every now and then, I really like to be late to worship, to enter into the community already gathered and singing. It reminds me of a couple important things:

1. By the time I join in with worship at 9:38 Eastern Standard Time, hundreds of millions have already been worshipping God for hours at their places of worship all over the globe. The Church on Sundays has been gathered far and wide to worship for many hours before the Chapel Hill Bible Church gets cranked up for service number one at 9:30 a.m.

When we lift our voices to worship or sit under the teaching and preaching of the word, we are simply entering into the corporate experience of Christ's body all over the world. Worship does not begin with us. It does not end with us. This is a good thing. When I come in late and the service somehow has begun without me, it's a healthy and helpful reminder of this fact. In a global Sunday sense, I'm always late to worship.

2. Not only am I simply lifting my voice among the many here on earth, but the Scriptures talk about the reality that worship is always ongoing, twenty-four seven, three-sixty-five/six. Whenever we gather to worship, we simply join in with the worship always happening, the perpetual worship offered up by the saints and angels that we get a small description of in Isaiah and Revelation.

Worship happens perfectly and always. We're invited to participate. Our voice is not lost in the masses; I am not "just another worshipper." But neither is it all about us. There are no soloists in the permanent worshipping congregation before God. We are image-bearers, doing what we were made to do. In a cosmic sense, then, I'm never late to worship. The invitation and the offering is always ongoing and open.

The permanent and on-going flow of worship is what I'm re-oriented to as I enter in and try to find an aisle seat while singing along with the rest of the congregation.

In many ways, that's a pretty good snapshot of what all my life is like: offering to God the worship that I was made to offer up while at the same time doing the small things that make up most of my life.

So next time you're running late to church just remind yourself that you're being afforded the opportunity to participate in a larger reality, and everything will be just fine...