Church debates have raged for
years over these questions: How to do worship?. Why do
we have Sunday worship? What happens there? How can we
make it more relevant? What form “works”?
Personally, I think there are
a lot of obstacles to coming to any worship service. Each
church does things differently, so what might be familiar
in one tradition becomes completely foreign to those of
a different tradition. People don’t want change.
Yet, too much sameness can lead to dull repetition, the
dreaded “ritual” that has lost meaning.
One form of worship closely
follows the Christian calendar—something very different
from our regular calendar. The Christian year follows
a regular cycle, but within the cycle itself is a lovely
rhythmic change. Instead of New Year’s Day, the
Christian year begins with Advent—the word that
means “waiting” as we prepare for the Birth,
that moment in history when we celebrate the Divine becoming
human. December 3rd marks the first Sunday in Advent this
year. In the Christian year, the Christmas season doesn’t
actually begin until December 25. It then continues for
twelve days through January 6, Epiphany, the day we celebrate
the bringing of the gifts by the Maji. Quite a difference
from the way the commercial world celebrates Christmas!
Those decorations are already selling briskly in craft
and hobby stores. Commercial Christmas goes into full
swing the day after Thanksgiving.
We have designed the new early
morning worship service at Krum United Methodist Church
to pay careful attention to the Christian year. We will
learn and enjoy a different vocabulary where the seasons
are concerned, and discover a gentler pace in a quiet
meditative worship service. We’ll learn a new vocabulary,
but generous instruction will be given at all times, for
we encourage welcome and comfort, not fear of the unknown.
All are welcome as we begin
this new rhythm of worship on Sunday, Oct. 8, from 8:15-9:00
a.m. in the sanctuary of the Krum UMC. Learn a new vocabulary
with us and experience the joy available to all with this
type of worship.
At 10:55 worship, we will talk
about those chance encounters in our
lives that leave us irrevocably changed. As we examine
an intriguing conversation recorded in the book of Acts,
we will have the opportunity to reflect on those times
in our own lives when it appears that the separation between
earth and heaven mysteriously melts away and suddenly
we see with different eyes.
