Dear Friends,

Yes, there is a parade in town this Sunday – the Bunker Hill Day parade. It is a cherished Charlestown tradition. But I am thinking about another parade. It is the parade we participate in every Sunday as we  worship. I know most of you don’t process – at the 8 am service it is usually just one person, the presider, and at the 10 am it is at the most 12 to 15 of us processing to the first hymn.

Still, I want you to picture our worship each  Sunday as part of a grand procession of people who throughout the ages have gathered, in formal procession or not, to bring their praises and prayers before God. Ideally, all of us should be a part of the procession.

The Bunker Hill parade is a long one. But the parade of worshipers of which you are a part is an even longer one. It includes those who sang the psalms when they were first written as they made their way to the Temple in Jerusalem. It includes those who sang under cover of night in slave quarters or other places where Christians were persecuted. It includes all the people of God in every time and place. And it includes all those how have gone before us and now sing a new song.

We are one incredibly small part of that parade. Nonetheless, it comforts me to think that whether there are 200 of us or 2 of us at a worship service, we are part of a much greater procession. I hope to see you at the parade this Sunday, and every Sunday.

Faithfully,

Tom