I don't know about you, but I tend to dread church meetings, typically Voters' Meetings. They loom on the calendar like infrared targets ripe for a sudden and terrible strike. As the day approaches, the tension rises and the pressure increases until I feel like an overfilled balloon. And I don't even personally attend any meetings at church!
While my description of meetings is dramatic, the truth is that church members and pastors are sinners, and whenever sinners get together, they tend to, well, sin. Depending on the church and the dynamics thereof, people exhibit and/or experience volatility when congregating together (I would even venture a guess that there's more fireworks in church meetings than in many other places, and not the kind that make people "oooh" and "aaah" with pleasure). And this is a sad reality of life together as God's people. We get mad, we get frustrated, we say mean and hurtful things. We get quiet and brooding and sullen. We harbor malice. We reject the mercy that God has given us in Christ and so reject our neighbors.
Sometimes anger is righteous. But too often, bitterness reigns. The balance is so difficult to keep, whether you're a layperson who's given decades of service to the church or whether you're a pastor's wife.
But thanks be to Him who saved us--and still saves us--from ourselves. He forgives our biting words, our sarcastic asides, our wrong assumptions and conclusions, our hateful thoughts. And--miracle of miracles--He comes again to meet us in each Divine Service, to serve us perfectly, to grant us forgiveness and to give us peace. I still won't be attending Voters' Meetings anytime soon, but I'm thankful that there's always a Christ-meeting just around the corner.
