Trust Me, Just Go to Church.

Easter has just gone by again, and like last year it was less than pleasant for me. Like last year though I greatly rejoiced at the Ressurrection of our Lord, I was depressed. It has a been a long sucky period for me which ultimately has extended for nearly two years, and the sad circumstances were present and pressing in my mind even during the festivity of the holiday.

All of this has made me think about the importance of church attendance since  there have been days on which attending church and being around people has been the last thing I wished to do. A thousand reasons to exclude myself from church on Sunday come to mind, yet each Sunday I gather myself and attend church. Why? Shouldn’t I exclude myself until I am feeling better?

After I thought about this for a while, I realized that I attend church every Sunday because there, and no where else, God has promised to regularly give me his gifts of Word and Sacrament. While I can hear and read the Word at home and I could even listen to sermons there, it is only at church on Sunday that I can hear my pastor preach the Word to me, and it is only at church on Sunday that he can place the body and blood of our Lord into my mouth. But why are these two things so important, especially now for me?

The Word and the Sacrament are so important because they are the means by which God is sustaining my faith. Though I am still reeling, God has promised to sustain me, and he is doing that through his Word and Sacraments. By these very means, he protects me from the wiles of the devil, and he sustains and builds up my weak faith. So in this sucky phase of life, church on Sunday is exactly where I need to be even though I may not feel that way always.