On Doubting Thomas - Evening Mass - Blessed Sacrament Catholic Church - Sandy, UT - April 26th, 2014

       I would say that I generally have had a good experience at evening masses...this one was mixed. But before I get into why, I want to describe the Church. The Blessed Sacrament Church also has a school that is pretty large attached to it as well as a few statues and flowers growing around the premises. It is quite a lovely area.

      Inside the Church is very similar. It actually reminds me of Saint Thomas More Catholic Church, but the actual Church feels bigger, though it may not be. It certianly has more information. When I arrived early I walked around...seeing the Tombstone Memorial the Unborn (also have seen one of these at Saint Joseph's in Salem) and has information on the memorial Mass for the Sanctification of John Paul II and John XXIII. It also had their brief biographies.

    There were tons of posters, notices and free information for anyone who was visiting. As someone who had arrived to the Mass early it was perfect for me in exploring the Church. After it got closer I made my way into the main Chapel.

      The chapel is beautiful. The tapestries were white and had Thomas touching the risen Jesus with the quote, "My Lord, My God." and the quote "Blessed are those who have not seen and believe." This was the focus of the sermon, which I enjoyed.

   Now for why it was mixed, besides the Tombstone...the music and the fact the Church is connected to the radio. The songs were just Christian Rock songs on the radio in the worst artificial way...beautiful, but no soul and turning words into lyrics for no other reason then for there to be singing...the congregation was quite on all the responses because the singer dominated...there wasn't much of a congregation it felt like even though the Chapel was full.

    This is one reason I'm grateful for the sermon...the sermon tied to the belief after the readings (all of which were New Testament Readings) on belief and being saved and finally tying it into Thomas's doubt. I might have covered this in a past post but I think Thomas is the minimum that someone like me could ask for. When Supernatural claims are made (someone raised from the dead) I need more than people who lost a friend...if not it is in all probability just inspiration.

  That is one reason I find Jesus's quote hollow...St. Paul asked people to think but then assumed to trust authority and his word regardless...if that's the starting point, how can one start clearly doubting and seeking the truth?

    The priest had a great quote about questioning with an agenda (and tying it to the media as wrong) and I agree with him...but can't the same be applied? Would you apply the same doubt to you and your own beliefs as you would apply to another religion? To another supernatural event?

    For me as an agnostic this is huge. If there is something that I can know for certain about what I can find beyond my senses...you can bet I would like to know. It would change the way I perceive the world beyond the very real human relationships and ethics of this one. The thing is, I haven't had a way to test that...I've had experiences but nothing so certain as touching the holes in a risen corpse and the wound in his side.

    For any religion, any supernatural thing...I would want that. To know the world as more than what I've known so far. Knowledge is power and with an ethical mind that power can change us for the better, and it is sure as hell a lot better than ignorance.

"Learning to Grieve with Hope" - Community Church of Issaquah - Issaquah, WA - October 20th, 2013

     Here is to those surprises when you find gems that line up with your schedule (whatever those gems are). The Community Church of Issaquah has a 1:30pm service that matched up perfectly with my schedule for a visit before later things in the day.

     Right now they are having services in the building that hosts the Issaquah Christian Church while their new building gets built. The main difference between the groups that I can gather from their websites is the Issaquah Christian Church is an Evangelical Church verses The Community Church of Issaquah who are Baptists.

    The first thing I noticed was the congregation, the congregation is old and small. There is a closeness among them too and everybody knows everyone. They are also kind to strangers as I experienced after the sermon.

   The Pastor looked the role of the Baptist preacher. He had a grey suit, tie, glasses and grey hair. He also had a lot of anecdotes during the course of the worship service. The service began talking about their missionary work in Myanmar and the volunteer doctors and nurses their (as well as their expansion) and after there was a prayer for all those sick, in surgery, going through cancer and a prayer for the country to elect virtuous leaders or for people to lead with virtue. Next were two songs praising God before the sermon began.

       The service was about "Learning to grieve with hope." The readings also had to do with the sermon as well were about Paul talking to his followers about how they had hope from Jesus rising from the Dead that they would rise again with him. The Pastor than talked about grief relating stories about what it was like to lose his grandparents and parents and his relationships to all of them.

     He then talked about how people choose not to believe. The reasons he believed people don't believe is from Intellectual barriers (he said Spiritual disability - which was the one thing I really took issue with during the sermon, since those intellectual issues are in fact valid, just look at all the questions asked throughout time not just in regards to Christianity but any religion and the proofs that are honestly needed, my appreciation for the philosophers grew after this sermon), or people who have been hurt by their community (which if a community does hurt a person they should leave, no one should stay in an abusive relationship with another person or community).

      Afterwords was the closing hymn and I briefly talked the pastor and one of the Bible Teachers, they both introduced themselves to me. I think I will drop by the Bible study sometime during the course of the blog. They are kind community and I'm curious to learn more about what they are all about and their intpretations and experiences.There were a few liberal bumper stickers (one said Obamacare in a positive light), which was something I did not expect. It just goes to show that there truly are such a wide range of political thoughts within any congregation and within the different congregations inside a denomination.