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Pastor · Sunday Schedule · FBC
News
2003
From the Pastor
THE HIGH MOMENT
“At these times they call upon their family and friends to help commemorate the high moment.” The quote is from the opening paragraph of the wedding service. It explains why we are gathered together. We are there to witness the expressions of love and commitment between two people. They need us there to give full expression to the event. They need us there to offer our blessing, extend our support, to share in the love they have for one another. It is too important, too solemn, to do it alone.
The church is often the place where these events take place because as it says in the wedding service, “But even more so they have felt the need to hold these experiences up before God.”
Life is sacred. Love is its highest expression, and innately we understand these truths, so we give to the honoring of these great truths the highest pomp and ceremony possible. It is the only way we have of elevating them in public to the place they hold in our hearts.
It has been a busy summer at the church for such occasions. There have been weddings, infant dedications, anniversary celebrations, and funerals. One Friday I had a wedding rehearsal while at the same time there was a rehearsal dinner for another wedding taking place in the fellowship hall. On a Saturday while I was officiating at a wedding in the sanctuary, a luncheon was being held in another part of the building for a family who had just returned from a funeral service for their father. On still another Saturday again while I was officiating at a wedding service, a reception was taking place in the fellowship hall for a couple celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary.
In two weeks I will officiate at a Memorial Service in our sanctuary for a beloved member of the congregation. It is for me another high moment honoring the previousness of the live of one who worshiped with us and thanking God for the gift of her life and the love she shared with us.
Every Sunday worship service is such a “high moment.” It expresses the sacredness of life and that love is the highest expression of life and both life and love are found in Jesus Christ.
On a day off recently, I turned on the television in the morning to find terrorists had bombed the UN headquarters in Iraq. A few hours later I turned the television on again and they were reporting a bombing in Israel that killed twenty people. How do we maintain sanity in such a world? How do we cope? How do we keep from falling into utter and complete despair?
One way is through these “high moments.” We continue to affirm and celebrate the sanctity of life and the eternal dimensions of God’s Love expressed in worship and the gathering together of friends and family to commemorate the great and sometimes somber and other times celebratory events in our lives.
There is a higher reality than the reality reported nightly on the news. It is the reality of a couple in love. It is the reality of an anniversary celebration. It is the reality of a life remembered in a memorial service. It is the reality of God’s Love for us observed in our response of worship every Sunday.
We need to honor these “high moments” and thus live lives that are counter culture to everything with which we are bombarded everyday. Life is sacred, and love is the fullest expression of that sacredness and we affirm it every time we call upon family and friends to help commemorate the moment together.
Dr. David W. Andersen
           
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