worship in the tabernacle
“If your soul has no Sunday, it becomes an orphan.” Albert Schweitzer
The focal hub of our summer community is a building erected hastily in 1894. It was part of a covenant that a group of Methodists made with the city of Ludington, Michigan. They could purchase this tract of land on Lake Michigan’s shore, if they could have a hotel and a worship space ready to go by July of that first summer. Both structures were built in just a few months on land previously undeveloped and predominantly sand. An amazing, maybe even miraculous feat.
The Auditorium was first called the Tabernacle. It has been continually in use since the summer of 1894 for weekly worship, annual town hall meetings, variety shows, movies and whatever other special programs are planned each summer. This place is seasoned with music and prayer and the faith of generations. “We come surrounded by a great community of saints.” (Mark Westmoreland) We come surrounded by a cloud of witnesses.
It is so important that worship be at the heart of what we do, not just here in Epworth, but in our communities and wider world. The daily worship app Lectio 365 has said, “On any Sunday at least two billion people will gather to worship Jesus. We are the largest, most diverse community on earth, an ancient global revolutionary movement.” Here in the Epworth Church alone we find folks from multiple denominations all over the US and other countries as well.
That doesn’t mean that every group of people that gathers to worship Jesus is doing good in the world. There are some groups that become so insular that they cannot see beyond the needs of their own congregation and do not recognize anyone who is not like them, religiously, culturally or racially. Some treat America as if we are the only place holding the flame of faith alive in the world. Let me repeat, TWO BILLION people AROUND THE WORLD will gather to worship Jesus every week! There will be Africans, Hispanics, Arabs, Chinese, Indigenous, Messianic Jews, Orthodox believers and Egyptian Coptic Christians. The oldest Christian church is in Ethiopia. And all of these are part of one movement.
We must remember that and be agents of peace. The letter of the Apostle James says, “The wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.” Have you considered part of the armor of God that allows us to resist evil is having our feet fitted with readiness that comes from the gospel of PEACE? (Ephesians 6:15) We don’t need more guns. We don’t need force. We need more peacemakers.
So, while we will have differences, even with other people of the Christian faith, we might find solace in knowing that it is in the diversity of billions of people in congregations, just like this one on the shores of Lake Michigan, that this revolutionary movement continues.
Love, Liz
“There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work. Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.” 1 Corinthians 12:6-7
