Sunday Funday

Sunday was an interesting day to say the least. Got up too early, scrubbed down and headed into the city. Beautiful drive with the top down. Sun coming up, cool breezes and the interstate was completely devoid of idiots and truckers...very nice!

Hit up my local coffee shop and sat on the sidewalk cafe and watched the parade of people waking up to another day and enjoyed Westport slowly coming alive. Ran into friends from church, had a ton of smiles and laughs at their children's antics and got some good coffee inside of me.

Went over to church for the 11:00 am service and that is where the day really got good. (I know that is bad grammar, but it works for me here) The music, first of all, was stellar! Mike Crawford and his Secret Siblings were leading and each song just touched me deep inside. Such a mix of the old and the new. To hear 300 plus people singing their freaking lungs out was just what I needed to get back in touch with some place inside of me that has been quiet and a bit dead for some time. The phrase that broke me was, "Wherever you go, there will I be, up North or down South, out West or back East. Wherever you travel, by land or by sea...wherever you go...there will I be."

Stunned into tears, I sang as my trembling voice would let me. Water marred my vision, but I did not care. What I realized there is that I am NOT alone in all of this. The turmoil and questions, the endless seeking for answer, the confusion and self doubt. During each and all these times...God is with me.

I sat down in a different head and heart place and prepared myself to listen. Deth  (pronounced Date for some obscure reason of Asian semantics) spoke on I Corinthians 13. The love chapter. The thing he did NOT do was turn it into some sickly, syrupy, sentimental garbage about marriage and all that crap. He talked about the problems in that church and showed the issues and struggles they were facing as they tried to live out their faith. He made those people Paul was talking about come alive for us. And in the middle of all those other chapters he presented is with this picture of love. We have been studying about "What is Church?" Basically the idea, that as the community of Jacob's Well...who are we? To each other, to strangers, to our community, to our friends, with in and with out. We are Church...but what is that?

After walking us through this idea of how we must relate to each other, that selfless giving, the air of love that all action needs to survive and be worth something, he stopped and started asking questions about us.

1. To be a part of Jacob's Well...is it true you have to abandon all PC products and swear complete and total allegiance to all Apple products, forsaking all others? (that one was damn funny)

2. If Jesus came to our church...would he wear skinny jeans like our urban hipsters or just normal clothes? (this got a good laugh out of Micah and that whole crowd of trend setters, the fashionable shabby, as I call them)

3. Are we Republican or Democrat, Libertarian or Apolitical?

4. Where do we stand on Social Justice and helping the poor?

5. Why do people keep talking about leaving their safe comfort zones and ministering to others in very real need?

6. Are we really an Emergent Church?

7.What are our corporate beliefs? What do we really stand for?

And then he brought up a question I had been hoping and praying would be addressed in front of the church. It is something certainly discussed at times in our small groups and among friends, but even in a place as open and truth seeking as we are, not something one hears in a Sunday Message.

8. Here at Jacob's Well...how do we support, minister to and stand with the gay people in our community, in our city and here in our Church body? What does the Bible really say about homosexuality?

You could have heard a pin drop.

He just stood there and looked around at us all. Us gay guys and girls know who we are. We are out to those we are comfortable with at the church, but I really wonder sometimes if the group as a whole know what a refuge and sanctuary Jacob's Well has become to those of us who have been kicked out, trampled, passed aside and ignored by so many other mainstream "christian" denominations?

Do they really know how many of us there are?

Would it matter if they did?

What DOES our church think about being gay?

I have never felt so accepted and loved in a group of believers as I did that moment. Sure, he did not answer the questions today and there is always the possibility that I man not agree with the stance my Church takes on the Bible and my sexual orientation and practice.

He went on to speak of our diversity as a whole. So many different races, ethnic groups, social and economic classes, sexual orientation, family and marriage status, differing beliefs on the Bible. All of these things where we are not like each other is what makes us strong. We all have a voice and a place at the table. If we were all the same, we would not be able to minister effectively to the world around us and the communities we each are a part of. Jesus NEVER asked for clones in suits and ties going door-to-door and talking in some "Christianese

I want to hear what they believe as a group. We are going to have conversations and Bible studies on this and all these varied topics! We no longer have to be silent. Questions and different opinions are welcome! To simply be acknowledged in a place of faith, with people who love me and support me, not matter what simply brought a place of hope and light on a day when I so desperately needed it.

Jesus loves me, THIS I know...for the Bible tells me so.

After leaving church I went and hung out with my buddies at a friends place. Had a few beers, cooked out on the grill and watched the Chiefs lose to a bunch of screaming and shouting. Sitting there in the den, surrounded by a bunch of guys in jerseys, cheering their lungs out and faces off for their favorite team I realized something.

We are just like you. You are just like us. In Christ, there is no Jew or Greek, no male or female...no gay or straight. We are His kids.

When are we going to start loving each other like family?