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The Preacher’s Corner
By Rev. Dr. Milton Winter Regularity and uniformity are signs of the Spirit to us On
a recent Sunday we had a little holy excitement in our church! It was
Eleanor Lee and Leslie Tomlinson’s 60th anniversary, and I had passed
the word that the congregation would have special flowers as a surprise
in celebration of the occasion. Jimmy McIntosh took care of those
arrangements, and everyone was on the watch for the happy couple to
arrive. We intended to mark the occasion for the milestone that it was. Not
many people have a sixtieth wedding anniversary. My Winter grandparents
did. I recall their 50th mostly through photos, for I was just a tot in
1955, but I remember the sixtieth very clearly. As with the Tomlinsons, it revolved around flowers placed in their church. My
Uncle Bill and Auntie Fran celebrated their diamond anniversary twice;
that is, they celebrated it at sixty years and again at seventy years! You
would think they were married as children, but were 26 when they
married. They both lived to be 101 years old! They almost celebrated
anniversary seventy-five. So events like this ought to be celebrated. At
our church on the anniversary Sunday, Eleanor Lee and Leslie arrived
just as the adult class was being dismissed. Everybody from the class
went to greet them and hear about their celebration activities. I
went to change into my robe and entered the sanctuary to begin the
service, but only a few were in the room. That did not give me pause,
as I was a few moments early. But nobody else
came in. I soon realized that those who were in the sanctuary were
people who had arrived before our honorees and did not know they were
in the building. Mr. Hiltonsmith, our organist,
had played a lovely arrangement of Bach’s “Jesu, Joy of Man’s
Desiring,” and after finishing, he looked at me for a signal. There
were still only four of us in the room! I could
hear the happy conversation wafting up from the entrance hall below, so
like a school principal hailing in the children from the playground, I
asked Bill Lesley if he would go downstairs and call the congregation
to worship. “Ring the bell!” I called after, as he walked down the
aisle. In seconds everybody piled into their
pews, giggling and looking a little sheepish. Eleanor Lee and Leslie
were blushing like newlyweds. It was a delightful moment! I asked Mr.
Hiltonsmith to play his prelude again, and this time the music was
enjoyed by all. Presbyterians are known for doing
all things “decently and in order,” quoting the Apostle Paul’s
injunction in 1 Corinthians 14:40. In some
traditions spontaneity and extemporaneous innovation are seen as signs
of the Spirit’s presence. But we are the people who think calamity will
follow if the service either begins or continues five minutes past the
customary times for entering and leaving God’s house. For us,
regularity and uniformity are the signs of the Spirit! On
any other Sunday, walking into the sanctuary and finding but four on
hand to worship God would have been disheartening. I am so glad to
report that the reason we started off with so few on that particular
day was that a happy celebration had spontaneously begun, and that we
made extemporaneous adaptations to assure its continuation. I
think the Spirit was present through it all — smiling down upon our
little flock — even if our service did begin five minutes late!
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