BEING REASSEMBLED [W, 3-27-24]

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter—BEING REASSEMBLED [W, 3-27-24]

 

I loved to hear Max White give the pastoral prayer in Sunday morning worship. He always started with, “O God, bless those of us assembled here…” 

I knew that he was asking a blessing upon the congregation, the corporate body, we disparate individuals who had come together for this special time together. I rejoiced in that.

I heard his prayer as well, though, as a request for reassembly for those whose parts had been scattered all over by the forces of the world. We came to church to be put together again, to have our brokenness made whole. “Bless those of us being assembled here…”

Max White was a blessing to me. In his retirement, he was the part-time minister of visitation at Wesley UMC in Charleston, IL for twenty years.

He and Ruth moved to our town when he retired after 40 years as a preacher. Ruth came to see me shortly thereafter. “This church is too big for you to handle by yourself,” she said. “You should hire Max to be a part-time parish visitor. He’s great with old people.” “I’d love to hire Max,” I told her, “but we don’t have enough money.” “How much to you need?” she asked.

Apparently she had, as the old saying goes, married Max for love but not for lunch.

So, I talked to some folks and found enough money to hire Max. I figured it was easier than doing marriage counseling.

So, every few weeks, when our associate minister or campus minister wasn’t helping to lead Sunday morning worship, I’d include Max as the pastoral liturgist for the day, complementing the lay liturgist. The lay liturgist’s primary duty was scripture reading and the pastoral liturgist’s primary duty was the pastoral prayer.

When Max prayed, “Bless those of us assembled here…” he was asking for help for each of us in being put back together.

As we age, our bodies become disassembled. It’s called senescence. It’s not the number of years that causes old-age problems. It’s the disassembly that happens in our cells over the years. Every time cells divide, there is a chance that something will go wrong, that they won’t come back together in the same way. The longer we live, the more opportunities there are for disassembly of those cells.

The same is true with disassembly [senescence], of the mind. Which is why we worship, not only when we are assembled with others in a church, but when we pray.  We need reassembly. In taking our lives to God in prayer, we are being assembled, put back together.

John Robert McFarland