Jessica and I didn’t end up going to Church while we were in Iceland these last two weeks for our honeymoon. We saw plenty of church buildings and even went into a few of them, but we never gathered on a Sunday morning in song and prayer (albeit in Icelandic) with the people of God.

This was not on purpose. 

The chock-a-block days we had driving around the country did not allow it. In one instance, the church in the little town where we found ourselves on a Sunday morning didn’t happen to have a service that week. The next week, the only ferry that was available for us to stay on schedule precluded a Sunday morning service. 

There ended up being something lovely about this – it is nice to have a break. 

And in any case, God was certainly not absent. 

God was in the waterfalls and hot springs, in the mountains and in the bubbling volcano, in the cry of the seabirds, in food prepared on a little butane camp stove and shared on the side of the highway beside a little red campervan. After all, the church building is not the house of God in the sense that God is confined there, that God lives there and doesn’t really like to go out very much.  

Despite this, I missed it. 

I missed gathering with the people of God, to sing, pray, and just be in community, for an hour or so on a Sunday morning. 

It reminded me how important this rhythm is in my life as a touch point, an anchor. 

Do you need to go to Church to find God? No. And it is OK to not go to church for any number of reasons. It is OK to find God out in the world. 

However, can we do this Christianity thing, this faith thing, this Jesus thing alone? Ultimately, I don’t think so. 

We need each other, we need this encouragement, this accountability that we, I hope, receive in the often-imperfect community of the Church. 

It is good to come home for many reasons, but one of the greatest reasons is to be back with the people of St. John the Divine, back in this rhythm, this touchpoint which nourishes and strengthens my heart and soul to follow Jesus, to be the Church in the rest of the week. 

Thanks be to God!

CG+