Why bother going to church?
Rabbi Schmuel Kaplan tells the story of an employee who approaches the boss in order to ask for a raise. Well, you can imagine the boss pummelling the employee’s request with any number of questions that have to do with justifying why a raise is so deserving. While going to the boss individually is a worthy endeavour, imagine the difference if all the employees showed up at the same time or, the union reps are part of the meeting? The weight of the request would shift in a very different way. No doubt, the rational for the increase in wage would be more convincing. No matter, the boss would have to hear the request very differently.
Well says, Rabbi Schmuel, imagine one person praying to God compared to a whole community praying to God. Not that individual prayer is any less significant, but there’s more capacity when a whole community prays. We must not underestimate the power of corporate prayer. And of course, the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament writings are filled with expressions of corporate prayer. In fact, the synagogue was developed to create a context for local corporate prayer so everyone in their town could come together and pray. The roots of the Judeo-Christian faith are community-based and grounded in congregational life. And the soul reason for that is founded on praying together.
Why bother going to church? We go because it matters that we pray together in community one with the other. We bring our whole self to church. We bring all that matters to us. We bring our worries, our anxieties, our intentions, our concerns, our gratitude, our joy, our compassion, our vision, our hope, our skills, abilities, talents, possessions, our desires for everyone’s well-being into a corporate community expression of prayer. Amazing really.