DISCOMFORTING WORSHIP
By Al Staggs,
Performing Artist, Santa Fe,
Sitting in a church pew
Sunday by Sunday
Has become painful.
No, the cushions are comfortable enough,
It’s just that the ritual, prayers, songs and sermons
Seem so ahistorical.
It’s all about then
And little about now.
“Nothing is controversial”
I think to myself
As I gaze upon that most controversial Cross
Which hangs conspicuously at the
Center of our place of worship.
Have our songs and words of prayer
Avoided the present crises
And thus become hollow, shallow shibboleths
Which provide personal, individual consolation
To our private lives and concerns?
The Announcement time indicates that
The windows of the church are tightly shut
For we appear to be obsessed with
Our hubbub of activities and churchly matters
While an earthly Hell
Has erupted all around us.
Yes, the services provide us an opportunity
To remember the eternal perspective,
That this life is but a small part
Of what awaits us as we reflect upon the promise of Heaven.
But is this an avoidance of the place of the here and now,
The present,
This life, the life of our Jesus
Whose 33 years were a pivotal time in human history?
Uttering the words of the Lord’s Prayer makes me squirm,
‘Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.’
And I wonder to what degree am I, to what degree we
Believe this and work to make this a reality here on earth,
In our own time?
Receiving Communion gives me cause to ponder,
“Am I really willing to take this cup of suffering with Jesus?”
Or is this another numbing ritual that has little relevance
To the need to work for justice?
So this is a confession of guilt
And also an expression of a desire
That our worship, my worship, become
Not only an expression of our adoration of God,
But that it would provoke us all
To remember this present world
For whom Jesus lived and died.
