Why Do We Keep On Doing This Stuff?

This summer has been the season for special services in our congregation. We have child dedication this coming Sunday with three babies and their parents. The following Sunday is the baptism of a young man who's grown up in our congregation. Last week there was a wedding. We celebrate communion on a regular basis. Thankfully we haven't needed a funeral recently but sometimes that happens too.

These things are good and they break up the ordinary time schedule of life in the church but now and then they do raise practical questions such as why we do them at all. We don't teach that a child becomes a Christian by being dedicated or that their parents magically have an easier time because somebody prays a certain prayer. We don't believe that people become right with God by being dunked under water in a cattle trough. A couple's love and commitment to each other isn't turned on like a light switch when the pastor says, “man and wife” during the wedding service. So, in a practical sense, these parts of church life don't accomplish anything.

At the same time, we come from a culture that, when it errs, sometimes leans over into over-work and fascination with accomplishment. I want to know at the end of the day what I did was worthwhile. A house builder or farmer can see the physical results of what they accomplished standing there when the job is done. Teachers have goals and curriculum guides to set direction and the developing skillset of students to show for their work. An accountant or bookkeeper can show the correctly organized list of numbers submitted to the CRA to accurately establish how much tax their customer can avoid paying. A doctor, nurse, or therapist has patients that are in some process of change in their health. The pastor of a church visits and has counselling relationships they are involved in and administers some functions of the church and preaches on topics that connect to the life of the congregation as a group and the different individuals within it. Sometimes in our culture, we even speak about resting in terms of what it accomplishes if we think of rest as a way to prepare for upcoming tasks. We want to know what our activities are for and what the results are.

Special services of the church fit oddly into that pattern. They accomplish nothing in terms of direct practical results. At one time, many generations ago, some parts of the church did try to over-simplify the role of special services by claiming that a person had to be baptized in order to be Christian, or had to be dedicated as a child, or needed to have their marriage celebrated in a certain way for it to count or take communion on a certain schedule officiated by somebody with the correct qualifications. Our branch of the church, among others, revolted against these oversimplifications several hundred years ago and even within the older Catholic and Orthodox traditions, there have been ongoing discussions since the beginning of church records that struggle with what, exactly, is accomplished by weddings, funerals, child dedications, communion, and other services. The fear then as now is that if we publicly admit that baptism accomplishes nothing besides getting wet in your clothes that people will stop being baptized. Or that if baby dedication doesn't make a kid potty trained sooner that people will stop bringing their kids to church. Or that if people can be in committed loving relationships without being married that they won't bother with a wedding.

I think that it would be fair to say that the church's historical attempts to over-simplify or invent practical reasons for these things that weren't actually true didn't work. At the same time, we continue to believe that it's important to keep doing this stuff even though the services don't accomplish a specific task related to the obvious function.

So what are the special services of the church for? Do they have a practical function at all and why is it important to keep doing them?

First, we are reminded to think about the future and the past. At a baby dedication, I think about my own childhood. I think about my parents' efforts to raise me as well as they knew how with the support of their friends, family, and church community. I think about how some of that support was good but others were flawed and sometimes even the best intentions go sideways but somehow here we all are by the grace of God. For me that happens at funerals too, possibly my favourite of the church's special services. I think about the future and I realize that someday I will die and perhaps some of the people I know now will either come to my funeral or make a point of avoiding it. Should I consider changing anything to affect that balance? Christian faith is about today, as Jesus teaches with his thoughts on lilies and birds, but it's also about how today is connected with yesterday and tomorrow. When I see Ethan baptized next week I will remember my own baptism and the man who baptized me and remains a mentor to this day. I will hope that my own kids someday have a mentor like that and decide to be baptized themselves and publicly associate with a particular congregation of God's people. All of the special services of the church are for reminding the participants and the observers that we are in today but we are connected to yesterday and tomorrow.

Second, we are reminded how much we rely on each other. You can't, in our culture, have a wedding by yourselves. There needs to be an officiant and there needs to be a witness. That's a reduction of the point that the church makes in holding weddings but even in its reduction, it's true. A wedding is two people in a relationship with each other and with God but it doesn't end there. They form that relationship in a context that involves other people. Some of those people support them, others are a drag, but they're all there. Sometimes the nitpicky family member who is frustrating to deal with in the preparation stages catches a detail that would have caused problems if the chill couple had let it slide. Sometimes the grace of God and the support of others are shown in surprising ways. At the service of communion we each chew and swallow the bread and suck in that tiny bit of red juice by ourselves but it's impossible to ignore that all around us are others also having a spiritual moment of faith right alongside us slurping and chomping our way through the elements. Throughout history the church has been reluctant to administer communion to one person at a time – communion is intended to be consumed individually while in the presence of a group. “We are surrounded,” as Paul says, “by a great cloud of witnesses,” some of whom we like and agree with and others with who we do not but stand with us in faith nonetheless.

Finally, we acknowledge God out loud. For me, this is surprisingly easy to skip over. I often think about God. I sometimes am amazed that I didn't fall off the roof even though it seemed likely or my kid didn't get run over by a truck or my spouse didn't leave me to fend for myself. I often think about how bad things could have been even worse and good things could have gone sideways and in the back of my mind, I wonder about God's providence in those events. I sometimes pray and occasionally when I pray I feel like God and I are fleetingly on the same wavelength. But I often think about all these things inside my head without saying anything out loud to other people or to God. But at the special services of the church, the minister says, out loud, “We are gathered here today in the presence of God to...” do whatever we're about to do. Together and out loud we mourn the loss at a funeral and we tell God about it. Together and out loud we celebrate and commit to support a couple at a wedding and we recognize God's presence with us. Together and out loud we cheer for a baptism and dedicate ourselves to being a Christian community that includes that specific person as we follow Jesus. Together and out loud we promise to help a family raise a child in ways that honour God through Christ. Together and out loud we eat bread and juice and remember that in some crazy way that goes beyond understanding we are part of the larger body of Christ's church.