What's Wrong with Charlie?

His name was Charlie, and he was one of the interesting people I have had the honor to know in my pastoral ministry.   He lived in a small town in eastern Sampson County called Turkey.  At that point in our lives, he was an old man and I was still a young man.  Charlie lived just down the street from the parsonage, and worked regularly at a local feed store. Charlie had some interesting habits.  For example, he liked to keep the church checkbook locked up in the trunk of his Chevrolet and loved to grind his own coffee beans with the coffee grinder he kept on his kitchen table.   When Sunday would come,  you would find Charlie forsaking his usual bid overalls for his seersucker suit and bowtie to wear to church.   There is something else that Charlie wore and it was this:  a long chain of perfect attendance pins at Sunday School and church he wore on his suit lapel. 

What was wrong with Charlie?    Why did he never miss attending Sunday worship?  Did he never get sick and not feel well?   Did he not have the chance to take a day trip to the lake or the beach?   Did he never have family come for a weekend visit?   What was wrong with Charlie that made Sunday worship such a regular practice week after week for years?    In Luke 4:16, we read the following verse about Jesus:

¹⁶ He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. 

I suspect that Jesus did not have a long chain of  perfect attendance pins; yet, it seems that when the Sabbath would come, you would always find him with the people of faith for worship.  What was wrong with Jesus?   Surely Jesus could have been a more able teacher than some others who spoke.   As the Son of God and the son of man, surely he knew of the truth that some said one thing on the sabbath and did something else the other days of the week.  What was wrong with Jesus?

The answer is that not anything was wrong with Jesus.  No, there was something right about Jesus.  Through his example and practice, Jesus was saying that worship of God was first and foremost.    There are a lot of people today that choose to not worship regularly for all kinds of reasons:   going away every weekend  to a second home in a beautiful part of the world, indifference to organized religion,  disgust at the church because of a bad experience with a church or a church leader, and many more.  Jesus and one of his followers, Charlie, went to their house of worship  regularly as was their custom.    How about you?  Have a joy-filled week.-  Pastor Randy Wall  

Prayer:    O God,  you are worthy of all our glory, thanks, and praise.   Help us make the worship of you first and foremost in our lives, on Sunday and every day of the week; through Christ our Lord. Amen.