Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - Sept/73

Contributor - John J. Opmeer

Title - I Love to Hear Sermons

Topic - Focus On Canada

I love to hear sermons. I hope you do, too. Of course, I don't listen to as many as you! Half a dozen is a good crop in any year. So, come vacation time, I look forward with special anticipation to the Sunday services, Imagine, no pressure. Just relax, worship, follow the order of service, sing, listen, and perhaps pick up an idea or two to use yourself in that ever-hungry pulpit.

However, it isn't always that easy to get to hear a sermon. I remember that one time in St. John, New Brunswick, We had picked up a list of churches, analysed it, and made our choice: a Presbyterian Church. We studied the map, and found the street. Next morning, at ten to eleven, we were at the right spot. But no church! We checked the number, drove up and down the street, but where the church should be, we only found an empty lot. We saw nobody to ask, either, for it was pouring rain. Finally, a pedestrian.

We approached him eagerly: "Where is this church?" He, looked around with a puzzled expression. I don't know, he said, but I'm sure I have seen a church here before. With a second one, a bit later, we had more luck: that church, he said, was just pulled down last week! They are going to build a new one.

This year, it was a different story. We had gone as far as a small town, north of Prince George, B.C., late Saturday afternoon. This is as far as we will go, I announced, let's get settled first, and then look for a church. We found one tiny Roman Catholic church. So we decided to leave early the next morning, and just keep on driving till we found a church. Easier said than done! Within the first hour our search yielded one more tiny R.C. church.

Around 11.00 a.m. we approached our first real town, be it small. No churches to be seen from the highway. So, we went into town and circled around. Finally, a church, a good-looking modern building, of a well-known Protestant denomination. However, no cars in the spacious parking lot. We found the doors of the church locked. No sign on the door, either, informing us why the 11.00 o'clock service wasn't taking place. By that time it was 11:30, and we gave up our search, for service and sermon. To this day we don't know what the people of that church were doing on that Sunday morning.

The same evening, we were in a larger town. Many churches. However, it being the evening of the Lord",s Day, that doesn't mean many chances to worship. According to a brochure we picked up at the visitors bureau, only a few churches were open that night, all churches of Pentecostal leaning. Fine - that probably meant lively worship, and a soul-stirring message. We went to the one nearest by. Strange, no cars again. A sign on the door, however, informing us that the congregation would worship that evening with the local revival centre. Ten minutes later a bit self-conscious, we shuffled in the rear of that church. Service had already started, the building was full, and they had to get a special makeshift pew for us from the basement. Lucky for us, the song service was in full swing, and not too many noticed the commotion which we caused. When the song service was over, the minister led in prayer, and then introduced the special attraction of the evening: a visiting Gospel group. For the next hour plus, this group played and sang loudly and enthusiastically, stopping only once in a while for a word of testimony. By the time the benediction was pronounced, I had resigned myself to the idea that this Lord's Day was not the day for sermons, at least not for this Vancouver preacher. I still love to listen to sermons!

LET'S KEEP THE SUNDAY EVENING!

From my experience this and other summers I know that in most places almost all churches are closed on Sunday evenings, at least in the summer. So what, you may say, there is no need to go to church twice a Sunday. But look at it this way:

1. First Church, Jerusalem, met every day for common worship. And as long as they did, they exploded with the power of the Holy Spirit.

2. Back in the Old Testament, King David longed so much to be with God's people in the temple that he said it was the one thing he prayed for: "that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the beauty of the Lord, and to inquire in His temple" (Ps. 27). Over in Ps. 84 we read: "A day in Thy house is better than a thousand elsewhere."

3. For most Christian families the Sunday services are the only time in the week that they really practice the presence of the Lord together.

I know from experience that it's not easy to find a way of worship for the Sunday evening that appeals to the whole family of God. My own conviction is that we need a much better balance between order and freedom in the Spirit at our services, and what better place to start than the Sunday evening service! But at least, let's be resolved to keep the opportunity open for believers to join in prayer and praise, and be built up in the faith by Word and Spirit. From worship, as from nothing else, we draw strength for ministry and witness during the weekdays between the Sundays.

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