Bus Route Blessings and a Good Kind of Dying

It was a Sunday like many others. We had sung some great songs, read some Scripture, and were in the middle of listening to one member's story of how he began following Jesus, when Geoff and I noticed a man (I'll call him Jim) who had visited a few times before, standing near the side entrance to the sanctuary. Jim looked like he was dressed for his bus driving job and was just popping in for a minute, so we smiled and waved (our church is casual enough for this not to be a distraction). A man sitting nearer to the door noticed him and stepped out into the hallway to see what he might need. A few moments later, I looked to see the man who had gotten up, his arms around Jim's shoulders, both with their heads bowed in prayer. 

And then, our visitor went on his way. I figured, and later discovered correctly, that he was on his bus route and had come in simply for a bit of encouragement and prayer, a “blessing,” to be precise. Witnessing this scenario brought tears to my eyes and made me think: isn’t that just what the Church is meant to be? A place, of refuge, a retreat, an oasis in the desert that is the world we live in. It brings me joy to know that this man had found a safe place in our Church, a place of comfort and love that he knew he could come to for a bit of refreshment in the midst of his daily grind.

And when I say Church and place what I really mean is a people. It's the people, not the building, who have the ability to incarnate the love of Christ before others. If you grew up in church, you may remember the children's rhyme with hand motions that says, "Here's the church, and here's the steeple. Open the door, and see all the people." A very unhelpful rhyme, actually. It should say, "...open the door, The Church is the people." But I digress...or do I? =)

True, the Church is many things besides a place of refuge. It's the community wherein believers are equipped to minister to others at their jobs and in in their homes and in all the places in-between--whether they are ever paid ministers or not. It's in the context of this community where followers of Jesus can make a public declaration that Jesus is their Lord by being baptized. And it's with fellow followers of Jesus that we remember his death on our behalf and look forward to his second coming through sharing bread and wine (or juice, if you're Baptist) together.

But, if The Church is made up of people who follow Jesus and call him Lord, and if he says that those people are to be marked by love--that the world will know that they are his disciples by the love they have for one another--that anyone who doesn't love his brother walks in darkness--can The Church really be a Church if it isn't a loving community? An unloving Church is an oxymoron.

There's much confusion in our culture about the nature of love. I'm not talking about warm fuzzies, or about having no boundaries with abusive people. I'm not talking about affirming or turning a blind eye to destructive behaviors. I am talking about walking with people for the long-haul through the not-so-pretty terrain of overcoming bad habits and learning a new way of life. I'm talking about sometimes rearranging your schedule and sharing your stuff and learning patience. Really, it all comes down to imitating Jesus in his death on our behalf. Not that you and I will likely be in the position to literally die for someone else, but in the daily-ness of life, we follow Jesus by loving other people in ways that often go against what we might feel like doing. And it feels a little like death. Even as I type this, I am convicted, because I know I don't live (die) like this enough. But there's also this promise that Jesus has for the struggling disciple, that if we come to him and allow him to teach us his ways, if we take his "yoke" upon us, we will actually find rest for our souls. And contrary to what we might expect, he says that his yoke is easy and his burden is light. But, the soul-rest comes from doing things Jesus' way, not by assuming he's going to do it all for us.

 So, being The Church is definitely more than a handshake and a "how are you?" on a Sunday morning. It's, in part, praying with a man named Jim in a hallway. Not that a prayer like this is some difficult task, but it's being the kind of community that demonstrated love and hospitality in the first place--a love that drew him back and helped him know he would be noticed and not denied. It's saying, "Come follow Jesus with me," and then sticking around through the nitty-gritty of what that actually means. It's being a people who keep coming to Jesus to learn how to die (truly live).