I imagine staring at your energy bill for the last few months is not the most pleasant task of the day. It's even less pleasant in a church setting, trust me. Thousands of dollars spent for a black liquid of unknown origin, all of which has been burned and exhausted up and out the chimney. As Winter yields to Spring, what do we have to show for it? Were the community and congregation better off because these four walls we call "church" contained heat on cold days? I surely hope so, and in my gut I believe so. But it is terribly intangible as I stare at the numbers on the page. What is the monetary value of worship? Of a community supper? Of the person who sits in an office or a classroom and talks of God and his or her relationship to the Divine? Was heating the church building "worth it?" Did we get our money's worth? I suppose it's like a pot luck supper. "If you walk away hungry, it's your own fault," my high school pastor used to say, standing behind the steaming casserole dishes and bean pots. Creating and heating a space for God's abundance to be made known is our way of setting the table, I guess. I'm personally grateful for all the folks who came to the party this winter, some of them old friends; some of them new to the church. I can't imagine life without worship and church, and so we'll pay our fuel bill and try to smile while we do it. In truth there is no putting a price on community and worship, even if both sometimes come with a bill. Warmer days are here again; let us give thanks in the House of the Lord!
Anyone remember this song of praise from the 1970's?
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