When we fly we are well aware of the fact that you cannot simply go out and buy a ticket and get on an airplane anymore. Nowadays, because of all the skyjacking and dangers, there is an elaborate system of surveillance before you get near an aircraft. Understandably, the authorities want to know what you are bringing with you to the plane. And so your own person and everything you are carrying is carefully examined.

As I found myself thinking about our communion, I wondered what it would be like if there were some spiritual counterpart to the security checks at the airport. If we had some way of discerning what kind of spiritual burdens a person carries into the sanctuary, what do you suppose would be discovered?

I am sure that when some people step across the threshold into the sanctuar…