It’s okay

EDITORIAL

There’s a popular You Tube travel site which can transport us to virtually anywhere in the world as we follow some charming surrogate travelers to destinations exotic and not-so-exotic.

Recently those travelers were in one country, staring across a body of water at another nation.

But, in a jarring note, they weren’t referring to that country by its established name, a name virtually everyone here would have used.

It took a bit of thought, but only a bit, to determine the reason for this. It was religion. Our travel guides were using the name preferred by inhabitants of the country in which their feet stood at the time.

(If only using alternate names for real estate were all these two countries have done to each other over the years).

Unfortunately, a number of people think that is what religion is all about, separating us over not only genuine faith, but doctrinal differences, perceived and real.

Those people need to come to the fellowship hall of Peace Lutheran Church at noon Monday through Friday of next week.

That’s when Rockdale’s Holy Week services begin. The long established tradition brings together members of Rockdale congregations to focus not on the reasons why we have many different Christian denominations in our town but on the one reason why we have Christian churches at all, in Rockdale or anywhere else.

That would be Easter.

Holy Week services are simple. People gather enjoy a light lunch, sing a few songs, listen to scripture and then hear a sermon.

For at least four out of those five days it will be a sermon from a pastor or priest you don’t hear from your favorite pulpit every Sunday.

And what have Rockdale residents found out in all those Holy Weeks of years past, and will find out again in 2019?

It’s okay that some people don’t worship exactly the same way we do.

It’s okay that some clergy wear clerical collars and some wear blue jeans.

It’s okay that some people like to punctuate a statement from the pulpit with a loud “amen” and some would feel uneasy in church if they turned the pages of a hymn book too loudly.

It’s okay if some people don’t think it’s appropriate to have musical instruments as part of a worship service and some think “76 Trombones” is a couple of dozen too few.

For there is one overarching reason for all of us to gather in that fellowship hall to share prayer and pimiento cheese next week and to do it reverently and joyfully.

The reason is nothing. It’s an emptiness. But it’s a profound nothing, an emptiness that changes everything.

It’s the emptiness of a tomb.—M.B.