For you church goers out there, and those of you who are married as well (i.e. those of us who have already a two strike count), have you ever noticed that when the pastor, in the course of his sermon, says something you feel is particularly needful for your mate to hear, and you look over at your mate to see if the proper revelation is taking place, you find that your mate is looking right back at you with apparently the same anticipation as regards yourself?
Ah ha! You see? There you go then--don't take it from me, take it from the pastor.
It is an odd phenomenon to be sure, and I always wonder if anyone else has experienced the same.
How is it that we are expected to learn something which we already know, which at the same time somebody else--specifically your mate--stands in need of learning? And how can she, or he, who does not know, who most likely very recently made a point of not knowing, be looking at you now as if he or she actually knew all along, and moreover the pastor just proved it!
Well, I don't know . . . maybe odd things seem particularly odd to me.
Church is so often one big deja vu moment. Especially if you listen. But we've kind of given off doing that lately. My wife fills out the gaps in her appointment book, I draw pictures of dinosaurs on the back of the bulletin (in the convenient space where sermon notes are supposed to go). It always seems like we're starving by the time it's all over.
Nowadays we take Roy, our Japanese exchange student, with us. In fact, Roy insists on going. Roy speaks and understands very little English, but during the sermon he listens very closely--raptly, one might say. Himself a Buddhist, at least nominally so (we all gots to be somethin), Roy focuses, sitting forward, never slumping; nor does he jot entries on his calendar; nor does he draw dinosaurs; Roy listens. He stands when it is time. He sits when it is time. He does not sing, but he listens to the songs.
What does Roy hear, I wonder? Is it all about language, a divination of foreign sounds. Is it all about diction and vocabulary--a new phrase, a familiar word, a revelation of grammar. What does he hear, and what comprehend?
Who is this man, the object of words--who but the ultimate word itself? And what is the cross, and the Word on the cross, other than the ultimate end of comprehension?
Is this what Roy understands, or something like it?
I can only wonder.
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