MATT.
7:1-5, 12-14
I am a volunteer with the Trevor Project and member of PFLAG. Earlier in January, we had the death of one of our community by suicide; Eric James Borges.
EricJames was a friend of mine. When I heard of his death, I was really pissed off. EricJames had a community of folks, not a church, who would go to the mat for him
and I began doubting the strength of that community. I found out in our church, we had a man who was EricJames’ teacher 10 years ago in elementary school, so there was
some grief and concern that we shared about his death. The GLBT community in Tulare County was really focusing upon the religious upbringing of EricJames where he was emotionally and spiritually rejected by his family. I spent the few days after EricJames’ death really struggling with my sermon. Finally, I woke up on Sunday and laid into a sermon that was basically, “We are not that kind of church.” That kind that rejects people. That kind that condemns everybody but themselves. As I had my gun loaded to present this sermon, we asked for prayer requests. Out of the back, one of our new members who was sent to the church by the Holy Spirit asked for us to pray for her friend. Her son had committed suicide; his name: Eric Borges. They were ‘prayer warriors’ together. I was stunned, shocked, and totally dumbstruck by what just happened. My sermon that was going to be my own therapy was shot down by a reminder of what type of church we are. I preached about that instead of what I wanted, because God moved. We are a church that includes Conservatives, Liberals, Moderates, none of the above, Pentecostal, evangelicals, Hispanic, black, mostly old, wanting to be young, gay, straight, and we don’t throw any title upon it, except church. Not “open and affirming” church. Not “you have to believe these fundamentals” church. Just the church.
Jesus invites all people and sometimes we would not invite those people to the party together. But Jesus does and we call it church.
I would recommend if you want life to be easy and comfortable, don’t invite anybody to church. Don’t go to the places where church people ain’t.
Don’t meet people you would rather not meet. It is much safer that way, but then what kind of church are we?
Prayer: God, help me be uncomfortable. Help me
help my church be just church.
Amen.
Niel Climer is Pastor of Disciples of Christ—Visalia.