Despite the rumors

I was late again for church (although only by a couple minutes this time), and for the second week in a row I felt a strong yearning for a different kind of service. I will have to admit, not only was I late but I also sat in the pews on the opposite side of the sanctuary from where several friends (but not necessarily good friends) were. So I felt a little out of place.

The sermon, once again, was pretty good. The pastor picked up from where he left off last week in talking about what happened after the feeding of the five thousand. After the miracle the people started following Jesus and asked him for more food. But instead of offering another miracle, he offers himself to them, asking them to put their complete trust in him for something greater than simply "another five thousand loaves of bread." It's one trait of God (technically Jesus, but they're both one and the same) that actually makes sense to me, even though I can't really get a handle on it.

Anyway I was hanging out with a couple friends last night and I caught one of them saying he was going to skip church for the first time in a while. I asked him where he normally went to church, and he said the Episcopal church in town. I recalled he told me he was Episcopalian. I have never been to that church yet, but over the last couple years I've been meaning to go there (on and off, though). But a revelation that came to me today while I was at the Baptist church was that I had missed what the Episcopal church had to offer. On the one hand, pretty much any sermon that I go to at Emmaus will be a good one, but I realized I miss singing hymns that I know. That was another thing; I didn't know any of this morning's hymns. I don't remember what the focus of the Episcopal church's ministry is, but I think I gotta get back to it soon.

So despite the rumors that I might be Baptist or some other "out-there" Protestant denomination, I'm still Episcopalian. And despite my repeated statements that I [almost] call Minnesota home, Chicago's still home until I physically leave.