Temptation in the Balcony

Today the balcony of  the First Baptist Church of Raleigh was filled with a sleepy congregation. Now that should be no reflection on either the congregation or the pastor.  It happened to be both the first Sunday in Lent and the first day of Daylight Savings Time.   The pastor, Dr. Christopher C.F. Chapman, gets my vote as one of the best preachers in America today.  But I doubted even his well honed homeletic skills could overcome the lethargy that this Sunday of the year typically brings.

It was most appropriate, I thought, that the sermon topic was "Temptation as a Friend," for I was certainly tempted from the very first notes of the organ prelude, appropriately entitled "Contemplation," to contemplate yielding to the friendly temptation of sleep. I tried to defer the drowsiness until the afternoon, then remembered the ACC championship game (Duke versus Carolina) was to begin at one o'clock.

I was glad that there was a considerable amount of attention given in the order of worship to confession and the assurance of forgiveness.  I confess that I have grumbled about the loss of an hour of sleep more than I ought.  I feel  guilty for complaining about such trivialities in the light of the overwhelming losses the Japanese are only beginning to feel in the tragedies left by an historic earthquake.  Then I recalled my friend Skip who has just gone through a  bone marrow transplant at UNC-Chapel Hill, and my brother-in-law Lee who continues to rehab from a successful lung transplant this past summer at Duke.  I wondered about the patients and families I minister to as a chaplain once a week at the Duke Hospice--talk about temptation to give up, give in, lash out, curse the darkness, and at least complain--those hospice families know it!

Having remembered during the beautiful organ prelude the plights of so many who are dealing with and have dealt with so many weighty issues, I seemed to rouse from my lethargy in time for the fine sermon that reminded me that the friend in the temptations may be a voice which gently nudges me to wake up, face life's obstacles with confidence that I am not alone, and get on with the good life! The Pastor did not say those exact words, but that's what I heard and needed.

I'll probably always have to fight the temptations of drowsiness as I listen to sermons from the balcony.  But hey, I remember I used to get sleepy when I was in the pulpit, especially on the first Sunday of Daylight Savings Time.