If you’ve been to worship at Burke anytime in the last 8 ½ years you know that we begin each service by standing and greeting the people around us. For years I’ve tried to come up with something funny or silly or weird for us to say to each other during this time. It breaks the ice, gives us a chance to greet our guests, and builds a sense of community as we begin worship. Sometimes it’s the community of a shared laugh and sometimes it’s the community of shared suffering (“I can’t believe Pastor makes us say this stuff!”). Sometimes people opt to stick with the traditional “good morning” as their greeting and that’s OK, too. We’re just happy to see you!

Lately, though, instead of deciding on the greeting by myself I’ve been asking you, the members of the congregation, what you think we should say to each other. You’re a creative bunch and I should’ve started asking you a long time ago! Recently an adult suggested that we use the Norwegian greeting “God dag!” (sounds like “good dog” and means “Good day!”) So, we shook hands and tried out our Norwegian. The next week I asked a young person in the congregation what we should say for the greeting and he thought we should definitely say, “Yo, dawg!” So we pulled out some slang and did it that way.

As I was driving home from worship that day I couldn’t help but laugh at how much our greeting ritual reveals who we are. We’re a God dag/Yo dawg church. We’re a mixture of the old and the new, the traditional and the contemporary. It’s in our building, in our worship, and in our people. And it’s wonderful! It’s so great that when we get together for worship the whole family is here, from the little babies up to the great-grandparents. Oh sure, the greeting may feel a little awkward once in a while, but when you’re among family it doesn’t matter. Whatever words we may use to greet each other, just remember that they always mean the same thing: “I’m glad we’re here together!” Hope to see you soon! God dag, dawg!

Peace,
Pastor Russ