Spectacles, Testicles, Watch, and Wallet

5643

I went to St. Mary's Catholic Church last night.

In relation to Big Church vs. Small Church thinking, there are still some parts of small church that I really enjoy. In enjoy them half because I find them ridiculously funny, and half because I just really like them. In our town the churches get together at Christmas time to have a choral service. Basically, each church has a pastor read a portion of the Christmas story and then the choir from that church sings a piece. This is one of those events that you would never go to unless you HAD to be there, but once you're there it turns out to be really good.

Now when I say "good", I don't mean that the music is good. Or that the choirs are good. Or that the service order is good. I mean it's "good" to have someone sit next to you that you can crack jokes with and then try to muffle your laughter as to not disturb the entire service. It was hilarious to watch our choir try to keep it together as the CD kept skipping and jumping around. I wanted to stand up and say, "And now our choir will be singing Celebrate, a piece written in B flat by Clydesdale & Johnson, part of the musical A Time For Christmas..... The Remix." The United Methodist Church did a happenin' number that everyone desperately wanted to clap to, but didn't because we were at the Catholic Church. And of coarse the Mormon "Community" church had one family come up and do a Christmas carol. I'm pretty sure they had the loudest applause, in a good effort, Gold Star kind of way. (But I can't say anything, at least their piano player didn't skip.)

On the flip side of this fiasco... I really enjoyed it. It was interesting to watch. In one way it was cool to watch like car accidents are, but in another way I enjoyed seeing seven churches with very little in common come together to celebrate the birth of our Savior. Different people, different styles, different Bible translations... I listened to the Christmas story in NIV, NLT, NASB, NKJ, KJ, the Message, and the "No Gender" Bible... I heard organ numbers, piano music, CD Tracks, and pitch pipes. All of it came together in a small white Catholic chapel with stained glass windows, a large alter up front and almost cartoonish statues of Christ everywhere. And when we sang O Come O Come Emanuel as ONE congregation, really as ONE choir with the organ... it was beautiful. The Kingdom of Heaven is near.