Gratitude for the Chance to Worship Together

Rev. Malcolm Smith

We had our second Community Worship Service on Sunday, October 23rd. As one of the people that helped to make it happen, I had plenty to do to prepare for it and some anxiety about how certain parts of it would go. But I was grateful —grateful that we got to worship together.

There are plenty of New Church people around the world who (at least as far as they know) don’t have any like- minded people to worship with for hundreds of miles around. That’s hard. And it is only very recently that technology has allowed people who are geographically distant to still have some experience of worshipping together with others via livestream. What a blessing to be able to gather together as a community to worship the Lord! I need to remember to not take that privilege for granted.

And it is a privilege nested in another privilege—the privilege of knowing about the Lord and knowing from the examples of others, teachings from the Lord’s Word, and personal experience that I need to be in the habit of taking time to worship Him. I can easily imagine my life feeling plenty full without having worship services as part of my weekly routine.

If you are reading this, then you are likely someone who knows the value of gathering for worship. You are also likely someone who has experienced some of the challenges of gathering with others for worship. But I hope that, whenever you read this, you can benefit from feeling grateful to know the value of worship and to have opportunities to gather together with others for worship.

“Bless the Lord, O my soul; And all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, And forget not all His benefits...” (Psalm 103:1-2)

“Come, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, To the house of the God of Jacob; He will teach us His ways, And we shall walk in His paths.” (Micah 4:2)