Jadyn and Hannah have received a lot of toys. Some from us, some from friends and family, and some were passed down from Karla's childhood. Dolls and games that have been kept in boxes for the last twenty years. But it seems to be those toys, the ones which were almost forgotten about, the ones that Karla and I remember and Jadyn and Hannah are just discovering for the first time that are drawing our family closer and create the most wonder and excitement.
I reflected on this as I thought about how our church is using a lot of common ordinary things found in life, or older things found in the church, in order to be together and allow God to speak to our community. I was recently asked by a old teacher to give her a reflection on the church. This is what I said: “ 'Church is the most segregated hour of the week.' That has become all to familiar to our ears. Yet, as much as we repeat the question, we are still reaching for answers as we were fifty years ago. Perhaps our intentions, methodologies or theologies are better. But those alone do not lead to change. Incorporating Spanish into our worship services does not make us a bilingual congregation. Celebrating cultural diversity does not make us culturally diverse. Perhaps it is better to say that church is the most segregated community. The issue lies past a worship service and lies within the worshipping community. Jesus was not a suspicious character because of what he said, but because of who he ate with. The church needs to be a conspicuous community because of who dines at the Lord’s Table. At Praxis Church, we know that God has called everyone to receive grace and peace at the Lord’s Table. This grace and peace is extended from the Lord’s Table to our dinner tables and our coffee tables, to the restaurants and bars, and beyond. These tables, existing out in the world, are gateways through which the church is called to bring people to the Lord’s Table. It is by intentional bread breaking, laughter-making, and tear-filled healing relationships that others are invited to experience the broken bread of Christ. God is working through food. At Praxis Church, we began gathering people over home cooked meals and liturgy. With the chicken pot pie and home-made mix-berry cobbler in front of us, we sit around the table hearing one another read the week’s lectionary passages. We do not discuss them, but allow the Word of the Lord to wash over each our lives while we enjoy good food and good company. There is something about allowing God to speak unmitigatedly through the Word of the Lord that is mysteriously marvelous. It draws the church together. One couple in our group is currently hosting a foreign exchange student from Guangzhou, China. His name is Songchen Xie, but he goes by Tommy. Since Tommy is dedicated to stay here for two years while he finishes high school and learns English, his exchange parents decided to bring him to our church dinners. It was quickly decided that we want Tommy to be a major part of our church. For the last three months he has led our church in the weekly Psalm readings. The church not only invited Tommy to receive hospitality, but the church asked Tommy to participate in the work of the church. The church invited Tommy to be used by God to speak to the people of God. And God does not disappoint. Tommy, through invitation and participation, has become a vital part of the church. We are so far away from being a desegregated, conspicuous community. But this is not a new struggle for the church. Paul was writing to terribly segregated communities. Yet he maintained focus on the cross of Christ’s appropriation for all of creation and God’s continued presence in the formation of the church in order to reach the world. God can use food and liturgy to spread the Gospel and break down the hideous barriers that segregate humanity from itself and God. The church does not need to reinvent the wheel, we do not need to reinvent liturgy in order to reach a post-Christian, post-modern world or become culturally diverse. The church only needs to re-appropriate it and know that God can take old, normal things like apple pie and the Lectionary to build the church and love and serve the world." Perhaps it is those old toys of liturgy and home cooked meals which will draw the church together. What do you think?
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Brief BioDaniel Archives
January 2016
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