Two Perspectives

I was the celebrant earlier today for a weekday Eucharist at another parish in the area. I was the substitute priest, filling in for a clergy friend who was busy attending to a burial in another state. To say that 5:30 p.m. on a Monday afternoon isn't necessarily a day/time that will draw the multitudes to a worship service, would likely be an understatement. In fact, the total attendance (including me) for the liturgy was six people.  At age 52, I was the youngest person present. The entire liturgy, from start to finish lasted slightly under 30 minutes.

From the standpoint of efficiency, cranking out one liturgy after another for several people at a time is probably not the best use of the gifts/skills of that parish's clergyperson. In reality, the liturgy seemed "tired" and a bit wrung out. And, to be honest, I wondered as we were working our way through worship, if old, tired and gray had become the de facto description of the Episcopal Church.

At the same time, I couldn't help but give thanks for the witness of the five people who made it to the liturgy and participated in the service with as much verve as they could muster. I think I might have seen one of them smile! They are, undoubtedly, witnessing to faithfulness (even when such faithfulness comes disguised as a degree of grumpiness) and what such faithfulness looks like to a culture lacking in any "stick-to-it-ness".

So, was today's liturgy simply a trip down memory lane and "what was"?
Or a trip to look out across the horizons of possibility and identify "what could be"?

Perhaps it was a little of both.