Whenever there is even the hint of a snow storm expected on a Sunday morning here in the Northeastern part of the U.S., many people (myself included, all too often) decide that it’s too dangerous to brave the storms and so the churches remain mostly empty. I’m wondering why we (again, myself included) don’t treat our time of fellowship with one another with the same sense of urgency as we would some other things in our lives. I mean, if one of my children got sick or got injured during a snowstorm and needed immediate emergency care, do you think I would say, “Well, it’s snowing too hard right now, maybe we’ll go after the storm passes and the roads are clear and safe for travel”? No, I would do everything in my power to get him or her to the care they needed immediately. Now, can you imagine, if upon arriving at the hospital or clinic, I found the it empty, because most of the doctors and nurses decided to stay home?
I remember one day, years ago I was working as a fireman during a major snowstorm. It snowed all night, dropping over two feet of heavy snow over the entire city. I remember on one medical call in the early morning hours; we encountered a giant tree down across the road where the caller was located, and we had to leave the firetruck and the ambulance over two-hundred yards away from his house. We couldn’t even bring a gurney with us, because the snow was already over a foot high. We trekked through all that snow on foot, and we found the caller in need of immediate hospital care. We had no choice but to pick the patient up and carry him in our arms on foot through all that yet unplowed snow. It was a grueling experience, but it had to get done. And, when the patient finally got to the hospital, he found it fully staffed with dedicated doctors and nurses to care for him.
I heard a story of a Pastor, who upon hearing that one of his parishioners, who battled with alcoholism, missed church one Sunday, decided to call and ask that man why he couldn’t make it. The man told his Pastor that he didn’t come because it was snowing and he couldn’t get out his car out of the garage. The Pastor then asked him if he drank that week. The parishioner said he did. The Pastor then asked him if he drank on Sunday. Same answer, “Yes, Pastor, I did.” The Pastor responded with yet another question, “Did you have to go out and purchase that alcohol in order to drink that day?” Now the parishioner seeing where the pastor was going with this line of enquiry, reluctantly, yet truthfully admitted that he did. The pastor then asked him, “How did you get there?” The quiet but truthful answer came back, “I walked.” You get the point.
The point of these stories is that we aren’t quick to make excuses for why we can’t do something when we want it badly enough or when we feel desperate. So, why don’t we want church badly enough? We go to church because we need healing, and also because there are many in our community that are in desperate need of help being healed, even more than we are. They rely on, or are supposed to rely on, the assembly to find that healing. Why don’t we have that same sense of urgency for spiritual, emotional, and physical healing in our churches as we do in other areas of our lives?