God Will Be Found in Church

In his letter to the editor, Ken Liu reports that the Memorial Church failed to publicize that the "free talk" delivered last Sunday by the 102nd Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Runcie of Cuddesdon, would have a "religious nature." Liu says he was specifically offended when Lord Runcie made several references to "God" and "Christ."

If Liu doesn't want to hear about God, I suggest that he not visit Memorial Church on Sundays at 11 a.m.

It is no secret that every Sunday the Memorial Church congregation worships God and Jesus Christ. The Church is the house of God, reserved for prayer and worship. We are now in the season of Eastertide, celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. What did Liu expect?

Liu claims he was only going to hear a "free talk," and that "the words 'Lord Runcie of Cuddesdon will speak on religious matters' did not appear in the pre-talk publicity." Since when does the Church have to inform people that its Sunday services are religious? Is it any secret? Mr. Gomes is, after all, not only the Reverend of the Memorial Church but also Plummer Professor of Christian Morals.

Didn't Liu sense that the service might have something to do with Jesus when he saw the archbishop wearing a cross around his neck as he proceeded down the aisle? Maybe Liu sensed that people came to worship God when the congregation read aloud from the Psalter. How about the Lord's prayer? That one is a dead give away: "Our father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name..."

Maybe Liu could have looked to the front of the church to see the cross displayed proudly for all to see. Or he could have noticed a slight religious bias during the prayers or confession of sins.

The sermon (it's not listed as a "free talk" in the service program) comes at the end of the service and always draws upon a passage from the Bible. Last Sunday, the sermon cited Genesis 28:17 for its title, "How awful is this place!" If Liu had listened at all to the lesson, he would have noticed the story concerned God's promises to Jacob. In fact, God talks directly to Jacob: "Know that I am with you and will keep you wherever you go...for I will not leave you until I have done what I have promised." But if Liu was asleep during the first lesson, he had another warning of the "religious nature" of the service when Gomes read the second lesson from Philippians 2:1-15, where Paul explains that "in the name of Jesus every knee should bend...and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is the Lord..."God was everywhere in the service.

Liu's audacious claim that "many in the audience" were "oblivious to the fact that Jesus was being sneaked in on them" neither confirms his utter lack rudimentary deductive logic, nor expresses his own pathetic attempt to find something about religion he can cry about. Perhaps Liu is the clear minded atheist who sees right through the Church's plot to convert an "unsuspecting audience" to Christianity. It might not have occurred to Liu that people go to church for the explicit reason of worshiping God. Some people do believe in that stuff, you know. If Liu does not want to hear about God, that is his prerogative, but he should not come to Sunday church and then complain that God has been thrust upon him. --Noble Hansen