Devoted?

In the Lectionary the fourth Sunday of Easter, we find these words written by Luke in his history of the early Church, better known as Acts. “Those who had been baptized devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of the bread and the prayers.” [Acts 2:42] In the Episcopal Church, this sentence is included as one of the baptismal promises by beginning with, “Will you devote yourself…” And I suspect there is no Christian group that would object to a similar question for their baptismal candidates.

With statistics telling us that church attendance is declining throughout the country and across all denominational lines, you have to ask yourself how many people think this model of Christian behavior applies to them? The key word in this sentence is “devoted.” They devoted themselves. Yet, it seems very many of us today devote ourselves to our favorite sports team, or to a Sunday game of golf with our buds, or maybe a family getaway to the cabin. All good things, but perhaps not the things we should be devoting ourselves to.

When church-going becomes optional, what is lost is the opportunity to learn more about what our faith calls us to, to be with others who are struggling to grow in grace and in harmony with others, to the importance of the sacrament of Holy Eucharist, and, of course, to praying. That’s a lot to lose.

What it amounts to is by staying away, by devoting ourselves to other things, these actions become a symbol of our belief that we are self-sufficient and self-important. Not even Jesus believed that.

Peace,

Jerry+