Saying Goodbye

I’m sitting here trying to remember exactly how Patrick dismisses us from Sunday service. I know it’s not exactly the same each week, but it is just enough the same that you anticipate it.

We have the closing song that Patrick leads. Then he wishes us a great day and hopes to see us next Sunday if not sooner. I think that is how he’s become comfortable with the closing.

Before we moved here, we went to a Missouri Synod Lutheran Church in Wisconsin. Before you turn up your nose at a church that is only a Luther (play on words) hair different from a Catholic Church, I’d say that church and our church both fed our faith walk at the time (in fact, my wife made that exact comment yesterday, so I know we both believe it).

Anyway, Lutheran churches follow a service order from their Synods (as a lot of denominations do).  Instead of going through a Bible book to preach, they have a predefined order and Gospel, New Testament and Old Testament passages from which to develop the sermon.  None of that is important, just different.  You might prefer one or the other (I’m finding myself less drawn to my old way after being exposed to the digging into a book of the Bible way) but, in my assessment, both are fine.

At the end of a Lutheran service, the closing would almost always be:

“The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace.” - Numbers 6:24-26 ESV

Depending on the church, it is either said by the Pastor or sung by the Pastor and the congregation replies with “Amen”

Just for the big picture, this is the part of Numbers where God is laying down the rules for temple worship before their nomadic travel through the desert begins.  In fact, just after this, Numbers talks about how, when the cloud of God was over the Tabernacle, they stayed and when it was gone, they packed up to move on. But what the Lutheran churches didn’t do, nor explain, according to my recollection, was the next verse…

“So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.” - Numbers 6:27

Now I’ve come to believe that being an Israelite is just another way of saying God’s chosen people. Since I’ve been grafted, I’m feeling that I am an Israelite. This also explains that this closing was one of my favorite parts of the church service (not because it was over). When I heard those words, I could feel part of my body strain towards God in a way I can barely explain.

We have two different services, from a music perspective, each week.  I love them both. I also love the even more traditional services that I have gone to in the past including the ones with Pastor lead and congregation responding liturgy.  I’m finding that my willingness to open my heart to God in worship is much more important than the style of the service.

“The Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, Thus you shall bless the people of Israel: you shall say to them, The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. So shall they put my name upon the people of Israel, and I will bless them.’” - Numbers 6:22-27