TOUCH IN CHURCH

I would like to share with you a 35-year old poem titled "Touch in Church" by author Ann Weems in which she reflects on being changed in church. I hope that Bethel's mission will always include the hope to be changed - through our encounter with God and with our brothers and sisters in faith.

"Peace be with you" "And also with you"

What is all this touching in church? 
It used to be a person could come to church and sit in the pew 
and not be bothered by all this friendliness 
and certainly not by touching. 

I used to come to church and leave untouched. 
Now I have to be nervous about what's expected of me. 
I have to worry about responding to the person sitting next to me. 

Oh, I wish it could be the way it used to be; 
I could just ask the person next to me: How are you? 
And the person could answer: Oh, just fine, 
And we'd both go home . . . strangers who have known each other 
for twenty years. 

But now the minister asks us to look at each other. 
I'm worried about that hurt look I saw in that woman's eyes. 
Now I'm concerned, 
because when the minister asks us to pass the peace, 
the man next to me held my hand so tightly 
I wondered if he had been touched in years. 

Now I'm upset because the lady next to me cried and then apologized 
and said it was because I was so kind and that she needed 
a friend right now. 

Now I have to get involved. 
Now I have to suffer when this community suffers. 
Now I have to be more than a person coming to observe a service.

That man last week told me I'd never know how much I'd touched his life. 
All I did was smile and tell him I understood what it was to be lonely. 
Lord, I'm not big enough to touch and be touched! 

The stretching scares me. 
What if I disappoint somebody? 
What if I'm too pushy? 
What if I cling too much? 
What if somebody ignores me? 

"Pass the peace." 
"The peace of God be with you." "And with you." 
And mean it. Lord, I can't resist meaning it! 

I'm touched by it, 
I'm enveloped by it! 
I find I do care about that person next to me! 
I find I am involved! 
And I'm scared. 
O Lord, be here beside me. 
You touch me, Lord, so that I can touch and be touched! 


So that I can care and be cared for!
So that I can share my life with all those others that belong to you!
All this touching in church -- Lord, it's changing me

(Source: Reaching for Rainbows, Philadelphia, PA: Westminster Press, 1980)