CHRIST
IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter—
It’s Sunday as I write this, so I’m thinking about Joys and Concerns…
A newly married young woman—I’ll call her Lori--was sent to me by a friend who was a member of my church. Lori had spent quite a bit of money on something without consulting her new husband. She was afraid that he would be upset. She didn’t know if she should tell him. She also realized that he would probably find out even if she didn’t tell him. Then he would be angry because she had kept a secret from him. It’s the sort of dilemma that drives the story of almost every TV show.
Lori was a little embarrassed about coming to me for marriage counseling. She was not a member of my church. She had a college education, and had been teaching school for several years, but she had never even been to a church service. Any church. Not even once. What right had she to waste the time of a preacher when she wasn’t a church supporter?
I assured her I was glad to be of help, regardless of her church affiliation, or lack of it, and encouraged her to follow her instincts about talking to her husband. [I’ll call him Jeff.] I also suggested it might be good for her to bring Jeff and come to church. She did.
After a couple of months, I asked her how it was going. “It’s great with Jeff,” she said. “I told him about the money, and why I spent it, and he was very understanding. As far as church is concerned, I don’t understand a thing, but I like the singing, and I like Joys & Concerns.”
That was intriguing to me. I like the singing in church, too, but I’ve always had doubts about Joys & Concerns, the part of the worship where we share our… well, our joys, and our concerns.
Most preachers would agree that it’s okay to print joys and concerns in the worship bulletin. Clem and Clemidia Kladdilhopper are new grandparents. Their daughter, Theodosia, had a baby… Chauncy Thistlewhite requests prayers as he has surgery this week… The flowers on the altar are in honor of…
Allowing people to pop out of the congregation, however, to voice their joys…Trump got elected again… or their concerns…Trump got elected again… can create a lot of problems. It’s hard for the preacher to keep things from getting out of control. You begin to feel like you’re playing whack-a-mole. And it can get very picky. We once heard a man whisper to his wife, “Was that the left ventricle or the right ventricle we were supposed to pray for?”
Doing Joys and Concerns is a long-time Christian tradition, though. The Apostle Paul was the first one to do Joys and Concerns. Look at the last chapter of Romans. But is tradition enough reason for doing it? Joys and Concerns can take a lot of time, and either cause controversy or get quite boring. Sometimes both. Is it worth it?
Probably so. Even someone who is an outsider to the congregation, or to the church as a whole, like Lori, feels like she’s in the community, when people share what’s important in their lives.
Lori and Jeff are no longer outsiders. They are in church, every Sunday, sharing joys and concerns.
John Robert McFarland
I
don’t know if he said it during Joys and Concerns, but Ben Franklin, upon
recovery from an illness, said that he felt “lightsome.” That’s a great word,
and a joy to share.
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