Church itch, hymns are hard work, and Psalm 23

Going to church on Sunday morning is important to me, yet I've always found church to be a peculiar experience physically.  Going to church alone doesn't help this.  It can often feel very lonely in a cavernous building, even though it is supposed to feel welcoming and comfortable.  I've always been fortunate to regularly worship in places where the celebration of the service and the people present help lessen this feeling.

Why do my eyes always water during the church service?  I am not an emotional or charismatic worshipper, nor do I worship in a place where those things are to be found, yet every Sunday, my eyes are watering by the time the sermon is over.  If you have seen me looking like I'm crying on Sunday morning, I'm not.  Oddly, my back also gets incredibly itchy as soon as I sit down in the pew each Sunday.  This does not happen anywhere else I sit during the week.  Is there an itch-producing varnish coating Lutheran pews in the National Capital Region?

I have a strained relationship with singing.  I love listening to beautiful hymns, but I find singing them to be tiring.  It feels like work if I look at the hymnal and see something longer than three verses.  However, I will sing the parts of the liturgy that are meant to be sung.  They're shorter, and are generally prayers containing verses from, or derived from the Bible, so I feel a greater sense of conviction to sing them.  I have past experiences in other branches of Christianity where singing in three or four part harmony was the norm during a church service.  I just couldn't get used to the harmonious Plymouth Brethren and Mennonites who always seem to know what part of the hymn to sing and how.  In my attempts to follow this approach, I felt more like a train that was unable to properly switch tracks.  Singing in those churches always seemed like work.  I go to church to be refreshed, not get tired.  I've spoke about my lack of singing with at least one Lutheran pastor.  He completely understood and said "good, as long as you read along."    Grace figures into Lutheran doctrine pretty strongly, I haven't been struck down from above yet because of my muted participation in the hymns.

Psalm 23 was the focus of the sermon at St. Luke Lutheran in Ottawa today.  Of course, that's the Psalm usually said at funerals because of its words which indicate faith and acknowledgement of God as the shepherd of the life of the Christian believer.  Pastor King, who seldom ceases to keep the attention of this watery-eyed worshipper with an itchy back exclaimed repeatedly that Psalm 23 is not exclusively for funerals at all!  It's words are a statement of faith and reliance upon God that is true at any time in life.  Wise words to remember indeed as we begin a new week.