Our topic today is worship and service. I’d like to begin by telling a true story that happened to Reverend Forrest I. Sears. He writes:
Wilma had been a member of our church for many, many years. In her later years she needed the assistance of a cane to help in walking. As she was talking with me, she would make points by lightly tapping me on the chest or shoulder with the handle of her cane.
One Sunday after our morning worship service, I was standing at the back of the sanctuary and Wilma hobbled up to me and said, “That was a pretty good sermon.” In my true Christian piety I said, “Thank you, Wilma, but it wasn’t me it was the Holy Spirit.”
Without batting an eye she tapped me in the middle of the chest with her cane and said, “Oh no, if it was the Holy Spirit it would have been a lot better than that! (P.S. I had the honor of telling that story at Wilma’s funeral.) [Communion Misunderstood, Citation: Terry Fullam, “Worship: What We’re Doing, and Why,” Preaching Today, Tape No. 102.]