“Well Pastor, you don’t take flak unless you are over the target.”
“I’m excited!” my young parishioner continued, reminiscing about his previous Air Force training. “It means we’re doing something here!”
Sunday morning we had visitors in our Adult Sunday School class. Now this isn’t so unusual, as we’ve had visitors of various sorts all summer long at 9:00 on Sunday mornings. It isn’t that we are advertising anything fancy or novel, we simply read the second lesson from the Lectionary and reflect on it. But it’s also God’s word we give audience to, and God’s word creates, re-orders, and sets the oppressed free to live. Not everyone wants people free.
So we are regulary a forum of the aging faithful, the young developmentally disabled, the substance abuse recovering homeless, the mentall ill, and you and me. (Perhaps that is a redundant sentence?) But on Sunday we had unusual visitors. They came in slightly late and they came in silently and angrily. We welcomed them to the table that welcomes everyone, offered them coffee and continued reading Colossians.
They had no names and wanted no coffee. They didn’t open the Bibles we offered, but steely waited for our reading to interface with their script, then took off into Moses and Holiness and Perfection! The one who spoke had eyes that burned through me and she trembled as she seethed. The second time she commanded our open conversation I let her run- for maybe eight minutes or more.
After all, at our table, you can rant. You can seeth, you can say whatever you like. And, if you are interested, you can ask any question – because we so deeply believe that it’s the work of the Holy Spirit to create faith- faith that usually has lots of questions and emotions. We believe that God’s word opens the process, and your experience matters deeply. She didn’t ask any questions; She wanted to fight.
We decided to love, and I’m not sure how she took it. Eventually she ran out of things to say and fell silent while we waited for her.. ten, fifteen, twenty, thirty seconds. She never reached her crescendo.. “shall we continue reading the lesson?” I asked after it was good and clear that she had emptied herself and the silence was thick..
We did, and Colossians answered the thread of perfection, practice and holiness she had woven her quilt together with. “No,” God gently spoke, “it’s Jesus, just Jesus.” We read slowly, so as not to miss a word that wrapped us in the arms of Jesus; and she had nothing left. We prayed and went upstairs to worship.. (they fled.)
What, we wondered, has just happened?
Love did not visit us on Sunday morning at 9:00. No, Love was waiting for visitors. Perhaps this is what invited the attack. God is love, and we follow Jesus, the great lover of the worst kind of sinners. And our reputation is growing – we’re the church where everyone is welcome and anyone who wants Jesus gets Communion. We’re the church where teenagers skate on the steps by the front door. We’re the church with the Bible studies that don’t flinch from deep questions. We’re the church that initiated a new cooperative ministry that brought a non-white, non-traditional, non-male Methodist pastor with corn-rows into our leadership. That’s us.. Love, and hope and total expectation that God moves among us in beautiful new and old ways..
But God is not alone, and Jesus’ work is opposed even now. When we go public with God’s shameless execution of the law on the cross as he opens his arms to us, we too unravel fear and all the institutions based on fear.
But they don’t unravel peacefully – for they aren’t made of peace, but violence; violence that instills fear – fear that enslaves, clones, and intimidates. Fear is the only tool Evil brings. And fear wanted a fight she could dominate! Sorry. We take the cross.
So we had fearful visitors. Direct hit! I kinda hope they bring friends next time… but then again, ministry is easier and more peaceful if they stay away.
Nah…!
But hold the press.. The discussion can't stay stuck here, in them and us. No, not if we're serious about us, and about Jesus. Because if we were so fine, Jesus wouldn't have needed to tread our earth, and we wouldn't have seen him crucified and risen.. but he did, and we did.
Them- in all their misunderstood motivations and meanings, in their frustration and anger, in their ranting.. has to be us too. They are no less beloved of God than we, no less sinful, no less welcome into forgiveness, no less precious in God's eyes than pastorman, there leading the good little welcoming Lutheran Bible study. No they are us, and their anger is ours (God forgive and bless us all!) Unless we start seeing things that way, we aren't ever welcoming, aren't family, aren't truly the Body of Christ that fully winces when our fingers get pinched.
We visited and were visited on Sunday; we who try to understand and follow. Now what?
Peace be with you and on your house!
