Why I go to church

All week long, I sin. I see sin. I see the results of sin.

All week long, I fight creation. I fight the weeds in my lawn. The mouse in my house. The fly terrifying my son. I hear my friend's roof is leaking from the ice on it melting. I hear of a car accident from snow on the road. The flowers my daughter brought home from Valentine's Day have started to wilt. All around me, I am reminded that creation is either scary or dying.

Then, I yell when I shouldn't (breaking the 8th commandment). I don't want to change my daughter's diaper (breaking the 4th commandment). I am tired of making supper (4th). I am lazy during nightly devotions (3rd).

I go to church a sinner. I go to church in need of forgiveness.

I don't go to church to feel good.

I go to church to get forgiveness. How? Because it is there in the Word of God spoken from the mouth of my pastor. It is there in the body and blood that I eat and drink.

It doesn't come to me through some feeling that stirs within my heart. If it did, I know that I would not get it every week because my heart is not always stirred. Sometimes, my heart is just my heart. Devoid of emotion. My forgiveness does not depend on me or my emotions. My forgiveness depends on Christ. Objectively, He gives it to me. He gives forgiveness in the water (baptism), in the Word (spoken to me by my pastor), and in the body and blood of His Son (The Lord's Supper). I don't have to wonder each week if I got it or not, if I felt it enough, if it came to me that day.

At the end of the service yesterday, I made my son tell me the third commandment and its meaning. Why? Because he wouldn't say the Lord's Prayer during the service. He knows the Lord's Prayer. He is quite capable of saying it, and he knows that it is expected of him to do so. After he said the 3rd commandment and its meaning, I pronounced forgiveness to him. The reason I say this is because I don't make it through a church service without sinning either. I need to know that I am forgiven when I leave because I can't even make it home without sinning.

So, why do I go to church?

Because I am a sinner in need of forgiveness and it is there that I receive this precious gift from God.