A Dining Hall's Windows and Mirrors

I've been helping a pastor at another church by officiating at some of the many non-member weddings scheduled there. Now, more often than not it feels as though I'm part of the complete rental package than someone who's been called to lead a community of believers to witness the couples' betrothal. In fact, between the day of rehearsal and the wedding day, some brides spend more time with the make-up artist and the hairdresser than they do with me in four pre-marital sessions. And it's not unusual at all for the bridal party to spend four times longer taking photos than we spent in the liturgical rite of marriage.

It wasn't the same with the last two couples. Somehow I made a different sort of connection with both Geoff & Monica, and Rian & Jennifer. Our pre-marital talks seemed more authentic and genuine. While we didn't spend a whole lot more time than usual with each other, we explored issues more genuinely and deeply. I was invited to both rehearsal dinners and to both wedding receptions. I enjoyed meeting their friends and family members. It was fun to hear different people reminisce about parts of the lives they'd shared with each of them, before they'd met the one whom they were to marry. The rehearsal dinners were casual and relaxed.

I can't say the same for the wedding receptions. Both couples chose to celebrate their marriages at the Columbia Club. I've been there twice before. A friend took me to lunch there. The same friend and his wife invited my wife and me to supper there. On both occasions the food was excellent, the service impeccable, the decor elegant, and the cocktails exquisite. But I've never been more uncomfortable.

Maybe I'm uncomfortable because you can't just walk in off the street and be served. The place is just what the name says it is. It's a Club. You can only go there if you're a member, or as a member's guest. When you go as a guest, the menu you're handed doesn't list the prices of the food. Frankly, I haven't wasted a lot of time trying to figure out what it is that makes me uncomfortable. Whatever the reason, I don't feel like myself there. I can't be myself there. It's just not my kind of place. So I've never been back. Not even to attend the wedding receptions of people I'd begun to fall in love with.

I doubt that I would have been invited to Herod's banquet (See Mark 6:14-29). Don't get me wrong. I have moments when I fancy myself as not only capable, but also deserving of hobnobbing with a tonier crowd. And I can't say I've never groveled to hold a place among the rich and famous. I remember feeling really hoy poloy at a luncheon Governor Bayh hosted for President Clinton - even though I was only asked to fill an empty seat. I don’t believe I’d do that again, not at the cost of not being able to be myself.

That's why I like being among the people at First Trinity. This isn't an exclusive club. You can come in here off the street. You don't need a host in order to feel welcome here. In fact, this is one of the few places I know where members don't have more privileges, they have more responsibilities. It's the members here who claim to be Sharin' Plenty Good News! It's the members here who pledge to be: inviting; welcoming; nurturing; discipling; healing; and, rejoicing.

That's really pretty cool. In a culture where we're so scared of each other we're puttin' electronic chips under our pets' skin in case they're stolen and where we're finger-printin' our kids in case they're kidnapped, we got this place organized differently. As nearly completely opposite of any: club; fraternity / sorority; league; union; or, association you can think of.

We're committed to lettin' folks be themselves here, because we're all the same here. The church is the assembly of those who have been dead and are alive. It is the company of those who were:
• banished and are restored
• in bondage to sin and are now forgiven
• unable to free themselves and are now empowered to liberate all God's children.

We hear this story of John's beheading on the heels of Jesus' sending the disciples off two by two, giving them power and authority over unclean spirits. Those whom Jesus had discipled, he now makes apostolos, sent ones.

That's what Herod had heard, that there were some folks out there who were goin' about his kingdom speakin' a different word. In a world organized for death, where folks were divided up as:
• men versus women
• masters versus slaves
• them that have versus them that have not,
those whom God had gathered as disciples were now sent as apostles with a different word, some new news, some Good News: God wants everyone to have life and have it more abundantly.

And nobody who runs a kingdom organized for death:
• not one person who benefits from systems organized for not Herod 2,000 years ago
• not Lester Maddox 52 years ago
• not the school textbook publishers who continue minimizing the contributions of African American inventors, artists and scientists
• not one person who benefits from systems organized for death
is interested in seeing a church like ours, a company of "the-dead-made-alive" - and entrusted with both a call from God and power from God to engage in life-giving, resurrection ministry - succeed.

That's what makes the story of Herod a window story and a mirror story. As a window story it lets us see what happens to us as individuals, to whole classes and races and countries of people when systems organize for death over life. As a mirror, the story of Herod makes us ask not only, when have I been victimized, but also:
• when has my failure to use power cost my kin his or her head
• when have I allowed myself to be sent not by life-giving Jesus, but by some death-wielding Herod
• when have I used my power to demand my enemy's head on a platter?

That's what makes what we do here week after week so cool. It's just so in your face. You see, we keep meetin' in dining halls that are open to everyone - where membership doesn't mean privilege it means responsibility. We keep tellin' the stories about who makes and keeps the promises the stories relate. We keep meetin' to have a banquet where everybody gets to eat and drink. We keep meetin' to keep on eatin' and drinkin' that which feeds us and nourishes us to break ourselves open and pour ourselves out!

That's what makes this not only a different place – it makes us a different kind of folk. For us it's not just that we know about Jesus. For us it's not just that we heard the sayings and think they'd make our classrooms run better. For us it's not only that we're still pondering the clever things he did with sick folks. For us, it's finding ourselves in relationship with God in Jesus. For us it's not just knowing about Jesus - it's about knowing Jesus.

And when we know Jesus, we gotta know that a Gospel-life; a Sharin' Plenty Good News life, isn't primarily about life beyond death the way the world understands it. Neither is it about some private, or individualistic revelation that lets us walk la-di-da no matter how many banquet halls we get dis-invited to or how many times our enemies scream for our heads.

When we know Jesus and when Jesus knows us, we know that a Sharin' Plenty Good News life is about the restoration to full dignity and complete worth of the here and now community. Of course, this resurrection, this new life is personal. As individuals we're made new, made whole. That's very clear throughout Jesus' ministry. But the resurrection, the gift of life is also public because it concerns the restoration and transformation of public institutions for the sake of human well-being.

If the world still ain't gettin' it; if all those folks who stand by as silent witnesses to the stupid, self-serving, death-dealing, promise-breaking rulers like Herod, if whole bunches of folk still applaud when the dessert table serves up a prophet's silenced head, maybe it's cuz we're too busy holed up in the safety of our club-rooms, maybe it's cuz we're hoardin' our own banquet food.

If we really know Jesus and if Jesus really knows us; if we really believe we are the dead-made-alive; if we really are raised and empowered and sent:
• wouldn't the world see through the windows and mirrors of our lives a fresh picture of the self they, too, could become in Jesus
• wouldn't the world value, as we do, all sisters and brothers in new ways
• wouldn't the world join our faith-based efforts, to address public issues of justice and fairness boldly?

That's the gift we have. That's the gift we've been given to share. If you were to begin building' a church today; if you were to begin helping' to rebuild a church today; it could only be because God has brought you back from death to life. That's what the Bible says. The whole Bible is full of stories about people who have been out of covenant relationship with God being invited and included back into that same, intense, life-changing covenant. And you got to look pretty hard to find a story that isn't about the most unqualified, by either Herod's or the Columbia Club's standards, being especially sought after and welcomed!

This is God's own gift of grace. Both the church and the world need to see and experience that there is another way. Both the church and the world need to see and experience that God has always meant to - and God always will mean to - gather up all things in Jesus, things in heaven and things on earth. Not everybody will get that message from palaces like the Columbia Club - so if we who are quick to claim we're God's own heirs won't let 'em see through those mirrors and windows, who will?