Low Sunday

My plan was to write about this yesterday. Plans change, especially in the face of the big news about Osama bin Laden. However, his death is a good context to probe the question of our faith.

I have been a priest in the Episcopal church since March of 1999. I was introduced to a new word by Epsicopalians, "low Sunday" years ago. Low Sunday is the Sunday after Easter. While it is not on the calendar, it is engraved in the heart of many people. It is a long standing tradition that you simply blow off the Sunday after Easter.

This year we had some 450 attend Easter services. This weekend we probably saw less than 200. That makes me sick. Easter is a fifty day celebration of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. It ends on Pentecost. We Christians struggle to make it last for a week.

Osama bin Laden knows about commitment. He lived his version of the Islamic faith pretty intensely. He did not do good things, but he was focused. We Christians, who reject the beliefs of Islam, seem reluctant to live our faith robustly. Is it any wonder that we are unable to make a bigger impact in the world?

Church attendance is not the measure of faith. However, skipping Sunday services is rarely done for reasons of faith, hope and love. The NT book of Hebrews says that we should not absent ourselves from the community gathering. Nowhere is non-attendance held up as a goal. I think there is a clear correlation between indifference to worship and indifference to the demands of the faith.

Over the years I have watched many members of my parish drift away. Skipping Sunday is the most effective way to disengage. Once "too busy," "too tired," or "not today" become sufficient reason to miss church, one can assume that there are any number of reasons sufficient to cut out all sorts of Christian disciplines.

If Christians believe that a weak and indifferent faith is sufficient to combat the radical Islam and aggressive secularism which we face, then Christians do not have long for the world. If we cannot get up to celebrate resurrection, what could possibly motivate us? If we are not excited about the Lordship of Jesus manifested among us, what could ever wake us up?