Looking for Spirituality on a Sunday Morning

Who in his right mind wakes up at 7.00 on a Sunday? I did. Huge mistake.

Read a few newspapers, had breakfast, took bath, even did some bloghopping. It was still 10.00. Something weired came to my mind and I decided to go to the local church for Sunday morning prayers. I know, huge mistake again.

The church was beautiful. There is one remarkable difference as compared to our Hindu temples, there is plenty of place in a Church to sit comfortably. When I hopped in there, some music was being played and people were standing and singing. As I stood there, not knowing what to expect, the old lady standing beside me took out a book from the shelf (yeah, each seat is self sufficient with a shelf stacked with books, a pencil etc.) and thrust it onto me with the relevant page open. I am sure she meant well, but I was in a spot. I had no idea what they were singing, ever after the lyrics were in my hand! I just looked ahead, although I did find with the corner of my eyes that the lady was checking on me. Sorry Ma’am, can’t help it!

Now comes the best part. The pastor asked people to sit and then read something from the scriptures. The language in the scripture was kind of contorted, so she decided to explain it to the people. I must say, it was not much different when the pastor took over from the scriptures. I could make out that it was the usual stuff about loving people, that God loves everyone, that we should be kind to everyone and things like that. It was more like a ramble and it was very difficult to concentrate on. Suddenly, the pastor seemed stuck on “random acts of kindness” and started telling difference between random and non-random acts of kindnesses and which one is better ( don't remember, don't care!). It felt more like my stochastic calculus class. I know, it is not easy to generate really random numbers, numbers without much of a bias; it sure would be difficult to get random acts of kindness! That is when I lost it. I suddenly remembered the tagline of Syriana: Everything is Connected. Statistics being utilized in a religious sermon, now that is one hell of an application applied math guys will be proud of! It was one big bheja fry material, the sermon I mean.

My attention wandered; I started looking around. As is true about most things in the US, there was plenty of evidence of proper organization. The hymns that were to be sung were clearly marked on one notice board. There was a young lady who was playing the piano in a mellifluous manner. The gathering was mostly white. There were a few African-Americans at the back benches who were just sleeping through the whole thing. They looked really poor and maybe homeless. I have no idea if church has a langar like they have in the gurudwaras; if they have something like that, it would explain their presence.

I was there for not more than half and hour and I was already bored. Suddenly, the pastor was done with her sermon and asked those around to greet each other ‘in the name of God’. Oh Well! Before I could figure out what to do, I had some strangers come over and say things like Hello, How are you doing..etc. A few people asked if I was in the church for the first time and were intrigued when they saw me. The guys at the back benches were still sleeping. They were having a good time!

As the church decided to go into another round of singing and scripture reading, I quietly walked out. There was a good Sunday afternoon to look forward to!