On the 4th of July, I’m at all times reminded of occasions I’ve traveled in international locations the place freedom is severely curtailed. Or the place the folks have been freshly free of the chains of injustice, and the enjoyment of their launch was palpable.
I used to be in Johannesburg on the tenth anniversary of the tip of apartheid.
I used to be in Korea when the border between North and South was electrical with pressure.
My strongest reminiscence got here from Moscow, the place I used to be instructing shortly after the autumn of communism.
One evening a gaggle of us went to the famed Bolshoi Ballet. It was a protracted, great night, and after we took the subway again to the place we had been staying, the scholars mentioned, “Come and allow us to have fun.” The opposite two professors with me had been as drained as I used to be, however the college students had been so intent on our becoming a member of them, that we went.
After which we discovered what celebration meant to them.
They wished to collect within the eating room and sing hymns and worship God. And we did, late into the evening, with extra ardour and sincerity than I’ve ever skilled. It didn’t matter that we didn’t know methods to sing in Russian—we worshiped God collectively.
However I went to mattress puzzled. I had by no means seen such ardour for spontaneous and heart-filled worship. I used to be curious as to why they had been so prepared and keen to supply God love and honor. I obtained my reply the next Sunday after I was invited to talk at a church in North Moscow. A former underground church that met in secret (as so many church buildings had been), they had been now assembly overtly in a schoolhouse. I had been requested to carry a message that Sunday morning.
I didn’t know that I used to be in for a little bit of a wait.
The service lasted for practically three hours. There have been three sermons from three completely different audio system, with lengthy durations of worship between every message.
I used to be to go final.
When it was over, I talked a bit with the pastor of the church. I used to be shocked at not solely the size of the service, however the spirit and power of the folks. All through all the three hours, they by no means let up. Regardless of the size of time, they by no means appeared to tire. Even on the finish, they didn’t appear to need to go dwelling.
“Within the States,” I mentioned, “you’re doing effectively to go a single hour earlier than each watch within the place begins beeping.” (This was earlier than sensible telephones.) He didn’t get my weak try at humor, however he did say one thing that I’ll always remember.
It was only some years in the past that we might have been put in jail for doing what we did as we speak. We had been by no means allowed to collect collectively as a neighborhood of religion and supply worship to God. And we’re simply so blissful, and nearly in a state of unbelief, that we will do that now – publicly, collectively – that we don’t need it to finish. And never figuring out what the longer term would possibly maintain for us right here, we all know that each week would possibly simply be our final. So we by no means need to cease. So we hold worshiping collectively, so long as we will.
As I left, his phrases by no means left my thoughts. I believed to myself:
I’ll by no means take into consideration worship the identical once more. I’ve been too informal about it, too laid again, taken it an excessive amount of with no consideration. These folks know what it’s about – actually about – and due to that, they’ve been keen, and could be keen once more, to undergo for it. To be imprisoned for it. To die for it. As a result of they’ve found that it holds that top of a yield for his or her life. It has that a lot that means and payoff and significance. It issues that a lot.
And it ought to matter that a lot to all of us.
Completely happy 4th of July.
James Emery White
Editor’s Be aware
This weblog was initially revealed in 2013 and has change into an annual Church & Tradition custom on or close to July 4.
