Dana Reardon - Worship feeds us, so we can feed God's sheep

Worship feeds us, so we can feed God's sheep

Are you already feeling a little overwhelmed by your fall schedule as it approaches? More meetings? More commitments? I usually write at least one column every fall on the stewardship of time.

This week, however, someone wrote to me about the value of spending time in worship. She is a very devout woman who does good for people and raises money for good causes and I was not offended at all by her question. Everything but the Gospel is open for question in my mind.

I do see incredible value in the time spent in worship. For some people it seems selfish because it is something they do for themselves. They would probably put meditation time in there too. But worship is about the gathered community. Often we are at worship as much for the other people there as we are for ourselves. And because we are fed and nourished, we are there for all the people we take care of all week long, that we might have the strength and compassion to deal with them in a Christlike manner.

I had a thought when I was meditating on so many hurts and sorrows in this world. We put up so many crosses and crucifixes to remind us of Christ. I think Christ would like it if instead of our gaze being upon the cross, that we would check out the view from the cross. I think that is what worship invites us to do. We are fed on Christ and then we become Christ and we look out on the people around us and on the hurting world through the eyes of Christ on the cross. And we look out with compassion.

There are so many things in your calendar that need to be rethought, and yes, one of them is worship. But when you rethink it, consider more time in worship for the sake of others.

My husband shared the most incredible metaphor. He had witnessed a scene of hungry people, starving people standing waiting for food, and as they were fed the mothers carrying babies on their backs would chew, take some food out of their mouths and put it in their babies mouths. I think that spiritually that is what we do. We who are hungry get fed. We are starving for compassion, and as we get some, as we get some love from Christ, we share it in bits as fast as we get it.

That is what worship is about. How can we feed a world on compassion when we are so hungry ourselves? We do it by coming to Christ to be fed.

Lord,
Call and feed us, and then as you did to Peter, bid us feed your sheep.
-Amen

The Rev. Dana Reardon is pastor at St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church, Warwick, RI. A lifelong Lutheran, she came to ordained ministry after 21 years in nursing, mostly in pediatric intensive care. She graduated from Lutheran Theological Seminary at Philadelphia in 1998 and served 4 ½ years in Upstate New York before becoming a New Englander. She is still trying to understand the accent. While in the Upstate New York Synod she chaired the Stewardship Team. That began her fascination with what makes stewards -- and more, what makes for generosity. She has three amazing daughters: Pastor Reardon says much of what she knows of life she learned from them.