Today’s blog
Lynn Murphy Mark
Sunday morning church
If it’s Sunday, it must be my day for formal worship in a church building. I didn’t always feel this way. Not until a perfect storm of circumstances happened did I start a habit of attending services once a week. I was 34 and I had a toddler. A friend invited me to attend service at her church, mostly to hear a singer, a man with a beautiful baritone voice. The church provided child care and my daughter had a good time. The building itself was relatively simple – no graven images, lots of wood in the sanctuary, simple stained glass windows. And, finally, the organist was superb and the choir was really good.
The music drew me in and the choir was irresistible. I remembered how I felt as a college student in the Chapel choir. That was the real beginning of my spiritual growth and development. Singing in church is its own kind of worship, and I’m all in with that.
I attended a few more services until I was convinced that this was a community that would provide what I was searching for. Belonging to a formal group of worshipers, and providing a structured youth program for my daughter were reason enough for me to join. And, icing on the cake was the weekly message from the Minister. He had a way of explaining passages from the Bible in words that made sense in my contemporary life. He could bring Jesus and his disciples to life better than anyone I had heard in my somewhat limited experience.
I joined the choir first and was delighted to serve as an Alto for the group. As anyone knows, Altos are the queens of the choir, even if Sopranos mistakenly think they are at the top of the pecking order. In my experience, Tenors need the most attention from the director, and Basses are the guys who show off those rich deep notes.
My choir life has been a part of every church I have attended since the 1980’s. Each choir has been led by a brilliant musician who knew how to achieve a perfect blend of voices, and how to motivate us singers to do our best at rehearsals and on Sundays. The choir director at Unity of Naples was able to face the section she was working with and play its notes literally behind her back. You’d have to see it to believe it.
Unity is my church home now and will probably be so for as long as I’m able to attend. It is a denomination that considers Jesus as a source of teaching how to live a life of purpose and service. It is a positive manifestation of God’s gifts that are available to all. For me, it is a way to live positively, and to set aside negative factors that can drain precious energy from me. It is an optimist’s delight that emphasizes personal responsibility for words and actions.
Every Sunday morning I gladly set out to get my weekly message from our Minister. She was an educator, so her messages are organized and to the point. She interprets biblical passages in a detailed and positive manner. She reminds us that the gifts we seek are found within our selves, and that God and the Holy Spirit can be accessed by going into our own heart space. As Jesus said, the Kingdom of God is found within each person. That’s a message that our world needs to hear and believe. That’s my opinion, anyway.