Saints and Sinners: Pleasant surprise at Adventist church
The trouble with many church services is that there are no surprises. We know in advance what is going to happen: opening sentences, processional, responsive reading, scripture, sermon and closing hymn.
But occasionally there are surprises. Take my visit to a Seventh-day Adventist church.
We were preparing to receive the Lord’s Supper when the pastor instructed the men in the congregation to retire to one of the rooms downstairs and the women to another room.
I followed along with the 30 other men. When we got to our room we all stood around in a circle. The man next to me asked, “Do you have someone to serve you?” When I said no (not knowing what he was referring to), he said he would be glad to serve me.
“What are we going to do?” I asked.
We are going to wash each other’s feet,” he said.
I looked around the room and saw several pails of water, some dippers and about 20 washbasins — along with some towels.
“What do I do?” I asked.
“I’ll get the water,” said my partner, who was a sturdy lineman for the local electric utility company. “You take off your shoes and socks and sit down on the chair.”
As luck would have it, I had a big hole in one sock but it made no difference. He knelt down and washed and dried my feet, then I put my socks and shoes back on and I washed and dried his feet. The other men in the room were doing the same for each other.
When we were finished, we made a circle again and several of the men gave thanks for what the Lord had done for them in their lives, or asked for prayers for themselves or somebody else in need.
I can’t remember when I have been so moved by a church service. The simplicity with which this act of humility was carried through and the lack of self-consciousness of everybody (with the exception of me) brought tears to my eyes.
I could not help but wonder how the women (with their more elaborate stocking get-ups) were managing this operation in their room, so I asked. I was told that most just put their stockinged feet into the basins. The stockings, I was assured, dry quickly.
Then we all went back upstairs for the Lord’s Supper.
This denomination of about 750,000 members in the United States is orthodox in many of its beliefs but is distinguished from other churches in mainly two ways:
The Adventists worship on Saturday because this, they feel, is the Sabbath (“and on the seventh day God ended the work that he had done and he rested.”— Genesis 2:2). The other thing that sets Adventists apart is their belief that health is a vital part of religion. They consider it as wrong to disregard the laws of health as it is to disobey the moral law. There must be something to it — their average lifespan is 16 years longer than for non-Adventists. (Adventist ministers are vegetarians, as are many lay Adventists.)
These good people, known for their extensive works of mercy in health and medical care, are way ahead of other Christians in their understanding of what the Bible means when it says that the body is “God’s temple.”
Next week I’ll tell you about a surprise I received at a Spiritualist service I attended.
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(George Plagenz is a syndicated columnist.)