Nathan E. Lewis

“A Little Holiday from the Church�
Address of the Graduating Class of 2006
of Covenant High School in Tacoma, Washington
by Nathan E. Lewis

Permit me to weave a tangled web of parables about people taking holiday from the Church. Some of the characters are actual people I know and love while other characters I have created from a conglomerate of people I have observed at a distance. A young man graduated with honors from a Christian High School and enrolled in a Christian University declaring his major to be Biblical Studies. He attended chapel five days a week and with his dorm mates, he rose early on Wednesdays for prayer. But on Sundays, he slept late, did his laundry, and played Frisbee golf. He reasoned that he would never find as good a church as his home church an eight- hour drive from the campus. He was receiving fine preaching in chapel and superb teaching in his Bible courses. This young man, who hoped to be a pastor was taking a little holiday from the Church.
At home, his older sister, deciding to work rather than go to college, had discovered a Renaissance reenactment society. From Spring to Fall, the society would travel each weekend to different locations to set up a Renaissance fair. She chose to be a peasant girl selling fresh cut flowers. She caught the eye of the young banker, playing the role of the prince. The reenactment troupe, noticing his flirtations with her, began to spin the fairy tale of the prince falling in love with the peasant girl. As their romance bloomed, enhanced by their make-believe world, they decided to wed in the Renaissance fair at the conclusion of the season. All the while, they were taking a holiday from the Church. The Bride reasoned that she would have never found her true love had she not joined the reenactment society. What could be the harm of taking two years vacation from the Church? Happily married and pregnant she found the reenactment weekends to be exhausting and much less exciting now that she had married her prince. Her husband agreed and accepted a promotion in the Bank, requiring the young family to move out of state.
With both of their children out of the home, the parents, who were active members in the same congregation for 20 years decided to take a little vacation from the Church. They had always dreamed of spending more time on their hobby as birders. And they now had a precious grandchild living out of state. Financially they were able to take early retirements and so they were free to take trips with their birders club and to visit their grandchild. They reasoned that D. James Kennedy was better than their pastor at preaching and they could tune in to his Sunday broadcast anywhere their travels would take them. This was a new chapter in their lives and a little vacation from the Church was spiritually healthy for them. On Sunday afternoons, as they were driving, returning from a morning birding excursion, they would tune the radio to Prairie Home Companion. Garrison Keillor was their favorite storyteller. Lake Wobegon Days captured their life experience. Actually Keillor was more than a storyteller, he was the preacher of the American experience. His insights were charming but also provoking. He understood the American Church and helped this couple finally understand their frustrations over the years with the Church. He was helping them to take a holiday from the Church.
A concerned family member asked me, “Do you think that they are Christians?� This is an interesting question. A better question might be, “Which of God’s blessings are these people missing since they have taken a vacation from the Church?�
Jesus told a parable known through out the world in the 21st century by Christians and non-Christians alike. He told the parable of a father who had two sons. One son demanded his inheritance and traveled to a far off country where he squandered his money living wildly. His older brother remained home working for his father. The younger son impoverished and miserable decided to go home, confess his sin to his father and beg to be his servant. As he was walking home, his father saw him a long way off, picked up his robes and ran down the road to meet his son. As his son fell to his knees beginning his speech of contrition, the father interrupted him declaring that he would host a feast. He commanded his servants to dress his son and to prepare the finest foods for the feast. When the older brother discovered what was going on, he refused to join the feast. The father reasoned with his older son, “All I have is yours, but this brother of yours was dead and now he is alive again!� Any of us who get this parable receive all we need to enjoy the fellowship of the Church for a lifetime. The Church is the closest we come to God’s feast in this world. The fellowship of the Church, including the corporate worship of the saints is a foretaste of the Marriage Feast of the Lamb being prepared for us in heaven.
Any of us who have taken a little holiday from the church may readily identify with the younger son. However, Jesus seems to hint at the older brother being the one who has taken holiday from the church. He refuses to enter the feast. The loving father welcomes both his sons to the feast. When we take a little holiday from the church, the Father stands ready to welcome us back to his joy.
At crucial crossroads in our lives, we make the choice to persevere in the Church, to enjoy the fellowship of the saints and to worship the one, true God, our Maker and Redeemer. High School graduation is one of these crossroads. Traveling far from home to study at the University is the beginning of a new chapter for some of us. Falling in love, wedding, and giving birth to children is a new chapter for some of us. The empty nest with retirement and the blessing of grandchildren is yet another chapter. At these crossroads we usually make careful plans. We choose the best educational institution, we choose the ideal mate, and we calculate our retirement funds. We invest hundreds of hours researching the best laptop to take to college and the best digital camera to photograph our grandchildren. How much thought have we given to choosing the right congregation for the next chapter in our lives?
I congratulate the graduating class of 2006 of Covenant High School. God has richly blessed you at home, at school and at church. It is my hope and prayer that you will remember my tangled parables, or at least, that you will remember Jesus’ parable as you continue your plans for the next chapter in your life. As you stumble into your college dorm room at 2:00 a.m. on Sunday morning after a fun filled Saturday night, will you pray for the strength to rise in the morning refreshed to worship in the Church? As the sunrise of Resurrection Sunday floods your room, will you drag yourself out of bed, go to the shower and sing surrounded by those lovely acoustical tiles, “Jesus Christ is risen today, Alleluia?� Will you rush out the door to join millions of Christians throughout the world to sing in the house of the Lord, “Come ye faithful raise the strain of triumphant gladness?� Will you fall on your knees to pray, “Have mercy on me, a sinner?� Will you pray with the Church of these last days, “Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven?� Will your thoughts be, “How lovely are thy dwelling places, O Lord of Hosts?�
In a little congregation in the shadow of your university, a widow is waiting for you to sit beside her, to sing the hymns into her ears, to stir her soul. A Sunday School class of kindergarteners is waiting for you to teach them the story of Abraham and Sarah, David and Goliath, and of Jesus Christ, who blessed the little children. The Church needs each of you graduates. What is your heart’s desire?
“One thing have I desired of the Lord. That will I seek after. To dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life. To behold the beauty of the Lord. To inquire in his temple, the temple of the Lord.� “Better is one day in your house, better is one day in your courts than a thousand elsewhere.� “I was glad when they said unto me, ‘Let us go into the house of the Lord.’� “May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God the Father, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you both now and forevermore. Amen.�