Gathering: 7-12-15

I haven't been feeling well for the past few days. Last night, I hope, was the worst of it. I rarely sleep five hours a night and am awake and out of bed by about six most mornings. Last night, I slept amost straight through from about 9:00 until after 7:00 this morning. This may be the second time in this calendar year that I slept until seven.

I say that to explain that Evie did nearly all the preparation for the gathering.

And, during the gathering, I did far more consuming than participating and, that's okay.

It was a wonderful time in the Spirit. Evie had a notion about where she hoped the meeting would go and started us moving in that direction but her vision was never realized.

Key participants in the group are in the midst of a real emotional and spiritual struggle within their larger family. We have been offering listening ears to them recently and I planned to make certain that we received an update but before they even sat down, they told us that they had an update. So we listened and responded for a long time, perhaps 20 or 30 minutes.

We are all about Hebrews 10 and spurring each other on to love and good works and that is what we did.

There was sporadic praise time throughout the gathering today but the majority of the gathering time focused on the taking of the bread and cup. The theme, I know, was unplanned but it came to be about thanking the triune God for the cross.

As the gathering broke up, after the meal, several people commented on how that conversation was precisely what they needed today. My thought is that that is not surprising because, today, nearly everyone present had a hand in moving the direction of the discussion of the Word, as we moved in the Spirit. The actual taking of the bread and cup was a blessing and the meal we shared was a special blessing, so much more than a matter of the food and drink.

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One other loosely connected note. We attended a funeral this week. The service was in a church and it was the closest thing to a Sunday morning show as we have experienced for a while. So much of what I once took for granted now seems like unnecessary drama to me. For example, being told when to stand and sit. The standing/sitting thing is not a part of what we do. In gathering, people do those things when and how they want and, because we are all participants and not consumers the need to move the flock around is not much of an issue.

One final observation about the funeral service: the family choose to sing I'LL FLY AWAY. When we got to the final chorus, the organist got us started and then stopped so we ended singing a cappella. It was beautiful.

It was also what we do all the time. And, I've come to prefer non-instrumentalized singing. It was good enough for the Apostle Paul....