Rhythm to Worship

There’s a rhythm to worship

A rhythm to soft words of praise

And loud shouts of preachers

A rhythm of exchange between the spiritual

And the mundane

Between God and

What we want to eat next.

There’s a rhythm to worship as we walk softly

And sing softly and clap hands softly

As we hope for something more than ourselves

And conjure up in our hearts something that feels like God.

There’s a rhythm to worship

As we pass around platitudes like communion wafers

Hoping that what we say is true

There’s a rhythm to worship
As we find the break in the ritual

As we find the door that takes us past false

and into the presence of God,

For just a beat before life comes in again

and the person next to us begins to sing off key

or the preacher loses his place.

There’s a rhythm to worship
As we move sine like through connection and distraction

Seeing the face of God on the upbeat

and loosing it again on the down.