Worship, community, and a few related bits

A few years ago, I participated in a discussion about Wiccan devotions on an email list that focused on British Traditional Wicca.  One of the elders (I forget which tradition) commented that just about any act can become an act of devotion simply by keeping in mind the Wiccan Mysteries.  It's something that's stuck with me, and I tend to see things the same way, understanding that an act of devotion is about perception as much as it's about carrying out any particular activity or procedure.  And in many ways, I tend to see worship (which I'm not sure I see as entirely distinct from devotion anyway) in much the same way.  After all, I'm constantly reminded of my paragraph from The Charge of the Goddess:

Let My worship be within the heart that rejoices,
for behold, all acts of love and pleasure are My rituals.
Therefore let there be beauty and strength, power and compassion,
honor and humility, mirth and reverence within you.

So to me, anything which brings to mind beauty, compassion, reverence, or any of the other virtues mentioned is an act of worship.  Any situation that brings about rejoicing and good cheer is an act of worship in my mind.  And if I meet another person and as a result we share these virtues and that rejoicing with each other, that is a moment where we have joined together in worship.

I've been thinking of this due to a conversation a couple of us had over on Matt's post about "going to church."  As part of the discussion, I suggested that if a small group of believers ran into each other at the grocery story, that might be considered "church happening."  Scott disagreed:

I get what Jared is saying, and I appreciate the intent, but this is not church. Three people randomly meeting at a grocery store are not gathered to communal bear witness to the risen Jesus through worship and service.

Personally, I offered my own disagreement with Scott:

Why not? Can't service and worship happen anywhere and spontaneously? Isn't the act of just meeting and showing each other Christian love an act of worship? After all, didn't Christ himself say that people would know his followers by how they loved one another? And once those people meet so "randomly," what opportunities for service might they find in that "random" moment? Perhaps they can help the elderly woman who's trying to make her way through the crowded produce aisle. Perhaps they can help the overly-tired mother with three very active children do her shopping.

And therein lies my point. I think it's important to see ANY gathering of believers -- no matter how random or unplanned -- as church simply because ANY such situation can lead to communal service and worship. And I'll be so bold as to suggest that not recognizing each such moment as such simply blinds one to the opportunities such a moment might actually offer.

Maybe my point is moot.  Maybe Christian theology simply doesn't support my basic assumptions.  (Christians will have to decide (a) if that's the case and (b) whether that's a good thing or a bad thing if it's not.)  However, from my perspective, it only makes sense.  Where more than one person meet, see the sacredness in each other and in the sharing of lives, loves, joys, and sorrows, worship can and will take place.

And I'd like to think that, as I mentioned, such a mentality does offer a chance for service.  Going through each moment of life with this attitude tends to make one more aware of opportunities to help others and touch lives.  Certainly, they might be small ways to do so.  But who says you have to do something big for it to count?

As I mentioned in the discussion in Matt's blog, anything less than this mentality suggests to me a compartmentalization of sacred experience and sacred living.  Community -- even religious community -- doesn't happen at special events.  It's heartbeat lives in every moment lived, at least to those of us who take the time to listen for it.

To do otherwise would strike me as, well, irreligious.