A Place for Peace

If you’re a Lutheran, you know how the back of the church is the first to fill up. Well, that’s exactly how it was when we first came 13 years ago. The front was the only unclaimed territory left. It turned out to be a great place to sit with our little kids; they could always see what was going on and everyone else got to watch their antics.
Fast forward and I have the pew all to myself for the most part now. Worship attendance has declined and people have died. There is plenty of open pew space to choose from. Though I’ve tried shifting backward a time or two, I still prefer my original location, but for different reasons.
Getting focused in on worship is easier when you can’t hear all the conversations going on around you. It’s seldom anything you’d want to hear about, but lately that has been especially true. “Murmuring” might be a better word for it.
Being the church secretary in the same place you worship means that you are always on duty and parishioners will sneak up from behind to tell you that they want to reserve the fellowship hall on the fourth of July or that their grandmother’s name needs to be added to the prayer list. I’ve even been ambushed by people coming back up the aisle from communion, so have learned not to sit too close to the end.
Every once in a while, some respite is in order, and today was one of those Sundays when I chose to worship with another congregation. Try to recall the last time the electricity went out at your house (maybe not so long ago, the way this winter has been!). Remember how quiet it was without the refrigerator or the furnace or anything else running? All those sounds that make up the background noise we never really hear are most noticeable when they’re absent. That’s how it is for me when I visit another church. It’s not just the “murmuring” that I don’t hear; the noise inside my own head goes away, too. Thanks be to God for this gift of hope and peace.