Just Another Manic Monday...

I do not know the hour or the week or the month or the year, but I know the day. Our Lord will return on a Monday. It seems that Mondays are always disasters or disaster clean up days. Perhaps it is because in comparison to Sunday, anything on Monday is a let down. Perhaps it is because we put off things over the weekend and so Monday ends up being the dump for all things unresolved, unkept, and unpleasant. But Monday it is... today, anyway.

I have never understood why a Pastor would want to take off Monday? Why would you want to postpone the inevitable of Monday's lost loose ends, moved meetings, common complaints, and poorly memorized messages. For example, today I am trying to recall, "Did so and so say they were going to court or was it something else?" "Did so and so say they were going into the hospital or had just been?" "Did I hear correctly that the toilet in the narthex restroom overflowed during second service?" "Who passed me a note after second service and what did I do with it?"

It is the bane of this Pastor -- Monday, that is. But like I said, what could compare with Sunday and not lose out on the comparison? On Sunday morning we are gathered in the presence of our Savior who speaks to us through His Word, who addresses our sins with His voice of absolution, who washes us clean in the water of His baptism, and who feeds us heaven's bread and cup in the Sacrament of His Body and Blood. In comparison to this, any day would pale. It just happens to be Monday.

After singing the likes of "Come, Thou Long Expected Jesus" and "Savior of the Nations, Come" and "O Lord, How Shall I Meet Thee?" and "O Bride of Christ, Rejoice," I can hardly abide the silence of Monday morning alone in my office. I want to be back in the place where hymns redound and voices sound.

After addressing some 240 communicants by name ("The Body of Christ for you, John...), I am left with the let down of a quiet building in which the meal is complete even as the worship of our lips and lives continues in other places. I want to be back at the altar bringing the Sacrament to the wanting hearts of my people.

After bidding prayers from a sung Advent Litany with bells (Come, Lord Jesus) to the intercessory prayers of a gathered people petitioning most for people not here among us, I can hardly get through the solitary prayers of my own hour of prayer. I want to be back kneeling with God's people praying for the whole people of God in Christ and for all people according to their needs.

But it is Monday and here I am... to follow up on messages passed... to schedule appointments and meetings for the week... to tend to things like bulletins and newsletters... to meet with the staff over a meal and prayer... to make phone calls, send emails, and a few visits too... and to bring it all to an end in time to be home with my wife for the last of the Thanksgiving turkey in one of my famous pressed sandwiches... Ah, such is the life of a Pastor... at least on Monday morning...