E-mail in Church?

Homily for the Twentieth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A
Are you addicted to e-mail? If so, you’re in pretty good company. A recent survey of e-mail users found that 46% of people surveyed admitted to being addicted to e-mail – up from only 15% just a year ago. Almost two-thirds of the people surveyed check their work e-mail over the weekend, and over a fourth check their work e-mail on vacation. This new survey has all kinds of statistics about e-mail use in the United States, including stats on where and when people are most likely to check their e-mail, but there is one statistic in particular that applies to what we are doing here: 15% of e-mail users admit that they regularly check their e-mail in church. Now that’s a generalization of course, and just one particular survey, but it’s telling nonetheless. Not only have we become an e-mail culture, but the boundaries between our work and personal lives and our worship of God are getting more blurry all the time.

But here – in church! This same survey found that over 50% of e-mail users check their e-mail in the bathroom or while driving. But in church! This is a house of prayer, as Isaiah calls it, a house of prayer for all people. E-mail has done wonderful things for communications, even within our parish – our parish prayer line reaches dozens of people each week via e-mail. From the perspective of Isaiah the prophet, I worry not about e-mail communication of itself; I worry about this house, this house of prayer, a house where all people can come for one purpose: to worship God, to gather as a community in prayer, to receive the grace of the sacraments. This house is not the place to check e-mail. This house is not the place to talk on the phone. But this house is also not the place to judge others based on their actions, their clothes, or anything else you think you know about them. This is a house of prayer for our community, a house of prayer for all people, a house in which we meet the very presence of God. And we must not take our presence here lightly.

It’s true that no two people pray in the same way. It’s also true that we are all in different places in our own relationship with God – some are strong in that relationship, others are just beginning. Some are filled with joy and peace, others are struggling to accept what God has given them. But here, in this house of prayer, we can all come together. Here, we all gather in the presence of God, listening to God’s word, strengthened by the presence of a church full of disciples. Here, we all receive the grace and strength of the Eucharist to live the way God wants us to live – with charity, with forgiveness, with hope, and with peace. Here we all pray together, because God knows we need prayers, God knows we need help, God knows we need his presence. What a privilege it is to come to this house of prayer and soak in the presence of God – what a privilege it is to come here and touch the divine! Because here, we are truly whole – and nothing should distract us from praying in God’s own house.