A Sabbath of the Mind

Summary

I know a man who grew up many years ago in what was then called the Evangelical and Reformed Church. The Evangelical and Reformed Church, or “E & R” as people affectionately called it, eventually merged into what is now the United Church of Christ. Anyway, this man tells the story of an incident that happened more than 70 years ago when he was a boy. The E & R church he and his family attended was located in a small town in Missouri which had only two churches: the Evangelical and Reformed Church where his family went, and a Missouri Synod Lutheran Church.
The story is that the town’s only grocer was a member of the Evangelical and Reformed Church, but despite being a member of the church, the grocer and his wife never stayed for the whole worship service. Indeed, the grocer and his wife did not even stay for the whole sermon. About five minutes before the sermon ended, the grocer checked his watch, and then stood up in the pew with his wife, ceremoniously walked down the long aisle in the center of the church, and left the building.