Just now, the second topic on everyone's lips seems to be, Are you going anywhere on holiday this summer? (The first topic, as you'll have guessed, is the weather.) Establishing presence or absence is very important to the smooth running of our social calendar, especially in a congregation like St Andrew's, where everyone's diary is well exercised. And not only to the social calendar!
Some of you, when you receive a phone call from me on a Saturday evening, have learned to anticipate me by asking, ‘What reading would you like me to do on Sunday?' But that's a minor matter of forward planning, compared with such grand exercises as our recent Pentecost Communion, where dozens of us were occupied in organising plants, cakes, music and particularly the serving of Communion to nearly 200 people, months in advance of the date itself.
Fortunately for us, apart from infrequent occasions like hosting the joint Pentecost service, we never need be taken by surprise when it comes to the question of our presence in worship. Our regular pattern of Communion can be inscribed into our new diaries every January, and Sundays come up very regularly! So one might assume everyone would be in church each Sunday. But in practice that's not so. Why?
Well, there are holidays - I've only just come back from one myself, so I'd be the last person to say they were unnecessary! Going somewhere else can refresh our bodies, jolt our minds into new ways of seeing things, and teach our spirits more about God's world and different ways of worship in it.
Then there are commitments to family and friends. Keeping up relationships is important, and while phone calls and e-mails are good, face to face is better. Sometimes with hectic working patterns or divided families, Sunday can be the only possible day to catch up with our loved ones.
Those of us in paid employment may find we have so much to do that Sundays are our only chance to take God's Sabbath rest and chill out. Those of us who are no longer paid may have a thousand and one possibilities of interesting and worthwhile activities which can be part of our commitment to God.
And of course, there are the times when we just can't get to church, whether we're caring for someone else, or our own bodies aren't up to it. We know, if we're in that situation, that others in St Andrew's are thinking of us and praying for us, and in that way we are still linked one with another on Sunday mornings - and during the week, too.
It's not easy, deciding how best to use our time. But as members of this church, we have a commitment to one another and to God, which we should take just as seriously as our other commitments. And if, through choice rather than necessity, we get out of the habit of being regularly present in church, we are also cutting ourselves off from one way in which God can nourish and energise the rest of our lives. This applies particularly to Communion - the less frequently we celebrate it as a church, the more important it is that we are all there, sitting around the Lord's table.
You've heard me say before - I hope! - that wherever we go in God's world, God is already there. We can encounter God's presence in holidays, in friends and families, in relaxation and in activities. So this summer, let's bring those encounters with God back into church, so that together we can give God thanks.