Last Sunday was the third week in the Advent season, I attended the Warehouse church in my hometown of Aurora, if you're from that area and you're in need of a good welcoming of everyone kinda church, this could be a good fit for you. Anyway, I was chilling with some people I kinda-sorta know, mostly through mutual friends, but also at the table I was sitting at there were some young teenagers. When it came to lighting the 3rd candle, one of the pastors invited two of the teens up to talk about a bit of a ministry they helped out last week, and what caught my attention was that one of of the teens invited up to talk was 15 years old and pregnant.
This interested me, because here in front of me and everyone out is this petite girl, a baby herself, pregnant with child. The pastor asked for her to light the third candle while the other guy was going to pray, however she couldn't disable the child proof mechanism on the lighter and so her role was switched and she offered the prayer while the 3rd candle was being lit. As she prayed my eyes welled with tears...
You see, church isn't for the proper, the ones who have it together, the pious and the perfect. Church is for downtrodden, the weak in spirit, the helpless and defenseless. A guy named Brendan Manning wrote a book called The Ragamuffin Gospel and time and time again I read it or listen to it on my MP3 because so often I forget that it's about grace. There is abundant grace for you as well as for me, God gives it to all, there isn't one person who God doesn't love -- GOD loves everyone.
My eyes also welled because the other church I attend since I was young wouldn't have let a pregnant 15 year old girl offer up her prayer or light the 3rd Advent candle. Such realities of life aren't shared and experienced in my other church, if this girl was to go to my other church she would get stares and the gossip would start, there's also the modern day Pharisees who might say things that are not Christ-like. This small act has unraveled me, because this is the church as it should be, this is the church I want to be a part, not apart, of. After taking it all in I texted some friends to give their 2 pesos whether their church would allow a girl like this to play a role in the Advent season, I got mixed results; some friends said yes and others said no because their churches shelter people, I was encouraged and discouraged at the same time for the above reasons.
***
For me:
I want Christ's love to flow out of me thoroughly, I want it splash and soak those that surround me. I want to stop religion when I see it happening, stop do and don'ting God, who are you to make coming to God a thing of work? I want people to realize that all you have to do is come as you are, because too often I find that WASPs are in the mindset that you have to earn favor with God to actually approach God. I want people to realize that prayer is communication is with God, but what does that look like? It's not about bowing your head and closing your eyes and saying words (unless that's your method), there are so many ways to pray! Personally I talk to God when I'm chilling in the great outdoors, I heart it! I also talk outloud while driving (thanks to Bluetooth technology, I don't look crazy!) and even when I am speeding along listening to loud music and thanking God for being alive and experiencing life...this too is prayer.
God isn't contained in a spiritual box, he is in all because he has made all. Everyone that lives, lived or will live is made in the image of God. Not everyone will get to Heaven because not everyone will believe. I want to share what I know to be true with those I come into contact with, words if necessary, but all the while I want to be me, I don't want to be a phony with who I am or with what I believe, I don't want to be seen as a cookie cutter Christian, because there are too many of them out there...the world has seen enough! It's not working, I am here to make a difference in the lives of others with God's help.
~Nathanael~
1 comments:
Yes, the church is definitely for those who need Jesus and know they need Him. As Francesco of Assisi said, "We are all poor in the eyes of our Lord." I've often wondered what poverty are they hiding who come to church services draped in jewels and furs and disdain any company but those similarly endowed. Yet, there they are, and if I press them, they will even to talk to me.
Years ago, there was a young couple in my church (Greek Orthodox) whose marriage had fallen apart. The man was an ethnic Egyptian and a rowdy, on the edge musician, a drug user, and in general, a careless liver, wasted by his physical excesses. His wife, on the other hand, was the spittin' image of Walt Disney's Snow White. She was, in fact, an ethnic non-Orthodox, who in marrying Emile became a faithful Orthodox Christian. Oh, the funny thing was, in spite of his destructive lifestyle, Emile was a devout Orthodox, praying with tears before the icons, asking God to help him. He wasn't cruel or abusive to his wife, or their children. But his ways were too upsetting to their home life, so they divorced.
Because there was little money in that family, Emile's ex-wife (who continued to attend church regularly) started taking on day-care, watching other people's children. But even that didn't supply enough income to support her and the kids, with what little child support Emile could give (due to his irregular working situation, being an on-call musician). So, she started taking in a boarder into her home, as well as doing day care.
Here comes the problem. The boarder she took in was a man, and she ended up sinning with him, and becoming pregnant with his child.
Now, you think this would have been the end of everything for that little family, now divided by divorce, and ravaged by drug use and other problems. But that's not what happened.
The baby was born. It was a little boy. Emile claimed that the child was his, even though legally he was divorced from his wife, and he took the blame for what happened.
The time came for the 40th day blessing for the child, and to find a sponsor for his baptism.
Since he was divorced, Emile did not accompany his ex-wife and the other children when they went through the 40th day blessing ceremony. I don't even think he was there. But the very idea that an unwed mother of three should bring forward a fourth, fatherless child into church to be presented and dedicated, without a husband accompanying them, well, in some churches that might not be possible. But in those days, at Holy Trinity, that's what happened.
And after the little boy was presented in the temple, a well-to-do and well-respected older couple stepped forward and asked if they could be the sponsors for the little boy's baptism when he was ready. They didn't have to be asked. They simply came forward, and their request was granted.
And never, not even once, was there any ostracism or gossip about the situation. Life went on as usual. That is one example I wanted to share with you, brother, as a counterpart of what you have written about in this post. This is how "church" should function. This is what I expect. Unfortunately, my church is now a "cathedral" and everything has gone glitzy and official, the clergy now so professional that if you don't fit in with his agenda, you don't exist. That is sad, but I am happy that in many places the church still lives in the love and power of the Holy Spirit.
Go with God, Nathanael, for He is faithful.
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