The Alter

Jesus doesn't discriminate.  When I picture him, I see him standing in the doorway of a huge house, ushering people inside.  There are already hundreds of people there, you can see their silhouettes from the window- they're laughing and talking, eating and dancing.  Some of them are wearing dresses, others overalls.  It seems for Jesus, the ever gracious host, that there are never enough people to invite to the party. He keeps smiling and waving, shaking hands, hugging. I don't mean to trivialize Christ's message by this illustration.  Perhaps it comes from years of youth work and teaching that have teenager-ified my brain into perpetually thinking like a sixteen year-old- but it's really how it plays out in my mind.  God's having a party and he wants everyone to come.

The problem is, unfortunately, people are often not gracious hosts.  We do discriminate.  We stand in the doorway and block the way for certain people.  Some people are allowed into our "house".  Others, are not.  

Self-righteously, we operate this way with God's house as well.  Certain forms of worship are allowed.  Some, are not.  Certain people are immediately accepted into congregational families, others have attended for years without receiving so much as a hello or an invitation to lunch.  Would your neighbors be welcomed into your church family?  How is this reflective of Jesus's character?

I wrote this quite some time ago but have been reluctant to post it or send it out anywhere, because without explanation, it could seem quite aggressive.  I am not, in any way shape or form, aggressive.  It is not an attack on all churches.  It's merely an expression of my desire to see change in the way we, as Christ followers, relate to people. Love people.  Accept people just as they are.  Jesus says that everyone's invited to the party- overalls and all(no matter how out-dated they be).  Why can't we do the same?

The Alter

Here we are at the alter

The ones who sing

Come as you are

and don't mean it

What we really mean is

Come as we did

Come as we have come

Come as what we look like

And smell like

And dream like

it seems like

The closer we get to the alter

the further our hearts recognize that others beat, too

In different rhythms and gyrations

in demonstrations of cast

Color

Creed

In the carpets tracked with sin

In the pews painted with greed

indeed

We are the ones who shine the light in others darkness

so that we can expose them

and take credit for the discovery

To God be the Glory

another fantastic story of good over evil

and they continue walking stealthily

as we breath healthily

live wealthily

without the faintest tremor

Here we are, standing at the alter

blocking out all other voices

Ignoring hands

Reaching fingers, breeching the code of conduct we've set before ourselves

As if we were superior

That they be made inferior with one wave of a spiritual hand

Fingers joined in prayer that bruised the wrists of mercy only moments before

Selling whores at the alter

Closing doors at the alter

Settling scores at the alter

And deeper still, the moment goes

while voices raise in pretense

In falsified unity

In clasped hands of forced community

To God be the Glory

Great things we have done

Painted on the alter

Tainted on the alter

Sainthood on the alter is marred

by those we've tarred and feathered and strung up to be pecked

because they're not what we expect

Whenever we detect a sense of irregularity in the simple pattern we've established

we have to rebuild the alter into something that looks a little more like us

and a little less like the one who IS the alter

disfiguring and dismembering until it emulates our faces

our hands on the alter raised in praises of our deeds

sowing seeds more likely to choke than to grow

we don't know

What we're doing is

Slaying souls at the alter

Making holes at the alter

for an easy escape 

for a dumping ground of the sound theology we have no use for

What a friend we have in Jesus

Then, what have the rest of us?

There is no us at the alter

Only assigned seating for the depleting congregation that can't keep up with it's own guidelines

who are running out of success stories and self-help remedies

with Jesus's face plastered on the cover

But what of those who only want to discover what the word 

GRACE

Really means?

And if it pertains to someone like them

What of loving your neighbor?

Seeking his favor?

We didn't know it was their alter, too

That it was more theirs than ours

That it was meant for people like them

To cry at the alter

say goodbye at the alter

To Fly at the alter

Just like we were meant to.

and didn't.