I read about the church before hand, so I had a fairly good idea of what I was getting into, but it's one of the closer churches to school, so I decided to check it out. The first part of the service was a lot of contemporary music, so needless to say, I didn't know any of it. During the music, I was contemplating why is it that I can go to a concert and dance around, but put me in church, and I'm a very good stereotypical Lutheran. Don't sit too close to the front, don't do anything that would call attention to yourself, and get some exercise in by doing Lutheran aerobics. I remember reading an article in a magazine I used to get where the author discussed church music. She talked about how contemporary music is great for relating to younger and more "modern" generations of church attendees, but that there's nothing like an old traditional hymn to really get at the really deep love or pain of life. That thought brought me to laugh at myself for remembering the Time for God motto of "it's not wrong, it's just different." I found myself really loving the message, though. With some of the "hand raising" churches I've been at, you notice it during the sermons as well, but I didn't here. From the feel I got while I was there, it felt like a church that is really involved in the community, but doesn't seek to smack everyone that walks by over the head with a Bible. They seem happy to live the love of God in the community, but save the "hand raising" for the four walls of their worship space. I just got back a couple days ago from a class on Christian Mission, where we discussed that in their true forms, being a missionary or evangelist isn't finding a megaphone and yelling for the heathens to repent. It's simple acts of kindness and love. Like offering something as simple as cup of hot chocolate after bonfire night, which is exactly what they're going to be doing next Saturday. Now, I definitely plan to do more church shopping, but that seems like a church community I could support.
Later this afternoon, a couple of the gap assistants and I went into town to get tea and scones. One of the girls was the French assistant, and she thought the barista had a French accent, so as we were paying, she asked where he was from. When he said France, they began speaking to each other in French. He didn't seem like an unfriendly guy before, but when he was able to speak in his native language, his face just lit up. Even though I only understood about two words out of their entire conversation, it was a really beautiful thing to watch. Before hand, I knew what she wanted to talk to him about, and she told us after we left that they weren't talking about anything more in depth than scones, but in that moment, I still saw God in the beauty of languages. And suddenly, I thought of the first Pentecost, and the amazement of hearing about God in your own language for the first time. Peter tells us of that amazement in Acts 2. "Utterly amazed, they asked: 'Are not all these men who are speaking Galileans? Then how is it that each of us hears them in his own native language?'" Later, he quotes Joel, "In the last days, God says, I will pour out my spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your young men will see visions, your old men will dream dreams." (Acts 2: 7-9, 17)
We all have different ways of communicating. Whether that be our faith, or the language we speak. In a world where it's all too easy to point out the flaws in our neighbors, but forget about the faults in ourselves, I think it's worth keeping in mind the wisdom and grace shown by my English brothers and sisters. It's not wrong, it's just different.
