Mennonite Weekly Review

I am done fighting the fact that we are a commuter congregation.

Ramer

We reside in many parts of the vast city of Chicago. We live in some near and some outlying suburbs. And some of us actually call another state “home.”

Like many urban congregations, our folks commute great distances to worship on Sunday morning. We drive highways, ride buses, board trains and arrange carpools. Nearer ones occasionally bike. Not one of us walks to church.

A neighborhood church, we are decidedly not.

In my first years of ministry, I expended far too much energy struggling with this reality. I am ready to savor the blessing in our scatteredness, delight in the inherent gift of our commuting.

Here’s a start: Each one who worships with us has worked hard to do so. Simply showing up for church requires considerable effort and a significant commitment of time and energy. Our gathering is all the more precious for it.

In Luke, Jesus laments over the city: “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing!” (13:34)

I find this incredibly touching: to have recorded in Scripture something so intimate as Jesus’ desire. It is indeed rare. The Gospels offer us only two additional cases of Jesus’ desire revealed.

One is within Jesus’ prayer for his disciples, friends and all who will believe through their word (John 17). The other is during the Last Supper (Luke 22).

Based on these three lone instances of glimpsing the content of Jesus’ desire, we find that it seems to involve gathering and sharing. Jesus desires our coming together, sharing a meal, experiencing mutual care and protection and oneness. Jesus desires our gathering for blessing and being blessed by one another.