“Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house.” (Luke 2:29 b NASB)
It is “St. Patrick’s Day, but this meditation is just another message for the saints of God.
This Friday morning meditation is taken from one of the verses in my sermon text for Sunday, a sermon entitled the same as the title above, but more in-depth. Right now, while it is still early in the morning, I just have one purpose; a purpose you will easily understand if you have not already guessed it already. Read on.
Perhaps I can count the times I have attended Sunday worship at the church that I have pastored since 1990, probably on one hand. Definitely not more than six times. Those times that I missed were due to graduations and family weddings out of town, the lack of availability of a Saturday night flight home from a short and rare vacation, or if I was restricted to the bed by the doctor’s orders.
Let me, as they say, make it plain. I have turned down invitations to go to out-of-town games of the week, where all expenses would be paid. I have driven back at 11:00 p.m. from upstate high school basketball games to make sure I was where I should be on Sunday. Tickets to pro sports events have been offered where I could have joined friends in a special suite where all the food and drinks you could consume were free. Sweet offer, but because the game was on Sunday, I turned down the offers. I turned down a high-ranking, corporate position that would require relocation to the east coast, even though it had the best benefits package you could imagine, even a BMW or Mercedes to choose from as a company car! How could I miss being where the Lord placed me and expected me to be? Here’s one for you, so you won’t think my examples only apply to pastors. The church I attended as a layperson never, never, never, never cancelled church. That included a day where the real temperature was far below zero and the roads were officially closed, and our family was gathered in one room to keep warm. But guess what? I ventured out on the ice-clad roads and made it to the house of God.
Can a headache stop me? No! Can a backache stop me? No! Can the fact that I don’t have anything new to wear stop me? No! Could being worn weary physically stop me? No! My nails needed a manicure and my hair needed cut badly, when I had hair, but did that stop me? No! One time, years ago, I tried one of those do-it-yourself curls for men kits and it did not work as advertised! Did that stop me? No! Did I leave the church building when the teenage boys were laughing silently like a Santa Claus, tears rolling down their cheeks, and their stomachs shaking like a bowl of jelly because of how badly my self-done “perm” had turned out? No! The fact that I had to take my turn to open the building at my secular job on a Sunday, and by “open,” I mean it consisted of more than just unlocking the entry way. I was required to unlock and open over 100 dock doors! Did that stop me? No! Driving to church and I had a brown shoe on one foot and a black shoe on the other foot! Did that stop me? No! I could go on, but you get the point.
Many don’t understand why I cannot miss church. Not even some pastors would understand my reasoning. But all I am doing is borrowing from Jesus’ words, “Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?” Or as my children used to reply when I asked them why they just had to do something, let me borrow one of their phrases applying it to my church attendance, “I got to!”
Let me turn my attention to you. Will anything keep you from attending church Sunday?. You have a couple of days to think about it, but I hope your response will be the same, “No!” “Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s house?” Get ready, already! Be blessed!
“Let us not give up the habit of meeting together, as some are doing. Instead, let us encourage one another all the more, since you see that the Day of the Lord is coming nearer.” (Hebrews 10:25 Good News Translation)
Still committed to the climb,
Mark L. King