Cafetorium Transformation

Quote of the Day:  Matthew 18 (The Message)
18-20 Take this most seriously: A yes on earth is yes in heaven; a no on earth is no in heaven. What you say to one another is eternal. I mean this. When two of you get together on anything at all on earth and make a prayer of it, my Father in heaven goes into action. And when two or three of you are together because of me, you can be sure that I'll be there.

To follow up on Thursday's Post, I did play for Palm Sunday worship service.  We are a newer Lutheran church in our area, a smaller congregation, and we gather at the middle school cafetorium on Sunday mornings for worship.  Yesterday, it was the site of a chess tournament.  Three of my boys played in the tournament, one earned a medal.  They all played great and had fun.  The one who didn't play, enjoyed being an individual, having free time, and reading a good book.

From chess boards, and serious concentration on Saturday, to a worship space on Sunday, this space is filled with the Holy Spirit.  With just a few symbols of our faith, a cloth over a folding table, candles, scriptures, and a piano, we come together as a congregation.  Members took speaking parts as we read out loud the script of the drama to the cross.  Verses of hymns broke up the dialogue, and I felt the Holy Spirit working through my playing, through the words spoken, through the fellowship of my faith community, and the spirit of this place. 

We had a larger attendance than expected, so I had to think fast for additional communion music.  I played a piece called Song of India, but you can only repeat and tag back so much.  When I saw that the servers ran back for extra communion wafers, I pulled out Beautiful Savior, our sending hymn. 

Monday, this space will be a cafeteria again filled with middle schoolers.  They will be loud and rough, or meek and quiet.  They'll spill milk on the floor and flirt with that girl or guy from math class.  They'll be thinking about grades and friends, and wishing for summer vacation, and worrying about their families, and trying to be grown up, but needing to be just kids.

And, the spirit lingers on.

Journaling Prompt:  How was your weekend?  Did you have any spirit moments?