Applause in Church

During high school and college, I developed some very strong ideas. For example, I still truly believe that most parents do the best they can raising their children. Sometimes their best isn't good enough for their child, but I believe most parents really do try.

Another strong idea was that applause has no place in church. Too often to me, applause ran the risk of applauding the musicians and not being actually directed at God. (In white churches, applause usually occurs after a particularly moving piece of music.) It was better, therefore, to abstain. And I have been possibly the only one in a congregation to not clap at such times, so strongly did I believe that it was better not to clap.

Now, I pastor a Hispanic church. It is a "typical" Hispanic church in that it falls into the category my mom calls "joyful noise" churches. Lots of clapping. During songs. After songs. Before songs. And when the music leader calls for an applause for God after a praise song, I clap, too. Perhaps it's because it's so explicitly stated, as this is clapping for God. Perhaps it's because I sit in the front row and my actions are very obvious to the rest of the congregation and I want to show my support for my music leader. Lately, though, I've found that I don't mind giving God a hand.

This past Sunday something quite unusual happened, unusual for any church. I preached from the lectionary and at the end of my sermon, repeated Jesus' question at the end of the Lukan passage, "When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" (Luke 18:8). Then I said, if he will find faith in you, please stand and affirm that faith now with the Hispanic Creed (written by Justo Gonzalez; found in 'Mil Voces'). At the end, I repeated what God said in the Jeremiah text, "For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more" (Jer. 31:34) and I said that since we have this promise that God will forgive us our wickedness and remember our sins no more, let us now confess our sins. After the standard United Methodist prayer of confession, I asked them to pray for a few minutes in silence. And then I gave a slightly altered United Methodist pardon,

"Hear the good news: Christ died for us while we were yet sinners; that proves God's love toward us. In the name of Jesus Christ, we are forgiven! Glory to God! Amen."

The congregation burst into spontaneous applause. Wow.