Cheers.....

Sometimes I get a song stuck in my head – an earworm. Often it is a hymn, and usually one that I don’t even especially like. The song that has stayed with me lately, though, is the theme song to Cheers, a TV show that hasn’t aired in almost 30 years. This is the opening bit: 

Making your way in the world today 

Takes everything you've got 

Taking a break from all your worries 

Sure would help a lot 

Wouldn't you like to get away? 

I don’t know why the song came to me, but isn’t it the right theme song for now? Lots of folks would like to get away – away on vacation, away for a worry-free night out, away from bills and masks and stress. And: 

Sometimes you want to go 

Where everybody knows your name 

And they're always glad you came 

You want to be where you can see 

Our troubles are all the same 

You want to be where everybody knows your name 

The fictional bar Cheers was that place for a small group. And church has been like that for some folks – a place where everybody knows your name, and they’re always glad you came. A deep sense of being known and (still) welcomed is a precious thing. It is the essence, I think, of the love of God. 

Our Cheers and our churches are flawed institutions. We don’t always want to know those who come, especially the ones who challenge us, who differ from us. We don’t always welcome those who need it the most. But in the world today, where it takes everything we’ve got to keep on with the keeping on, we need each other. 

Unlike the song, these days our troubles are not all the same: The people I know are not fleeing a war or fighting for their lives. But maybe, deep down, we all long to be known, to be loved, to be welcomed into the holy embrace of God.

Making our way in the world today takes everything we've got.  Lord, have mercy. Christ, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.