I know it’s the celebratory Easter season but I felt a lot of brokenness at church today.
There was some guy making lots of noise on the other side of the sanctuary. I assumed he was mentally challenged or handicapped in some way, and he kept like moaning in the quiet parts of songs and at the really poignant parts in the preacher’s sermon. As if he wanted to participate but didn't have the capacity to do it well or know when he’s supposed to be quiet, like the rest of us all have so well perfected.
At first I wanted to say, “Why aren’t they moving him outside the sanctuary or something. It’s distracting us from doing church well. But by the little smiles on the worship leader’s and the pastor’s faces, I think they kind of liked it.
And I realized that maybe even though it was distracting us from doing things we think are churchy, it was us really doing church. Really BEING the church.
And you know what the sermon was about? It was about finding a vision of what heaven is supposed to be like and live it out here on earth. And I realized this is it. Loving each other as one big body, loving each part for exactly who we are is way more glorifying to God than singing songs without distractions.
Today, these were the best types of distractions, because we got to practice that love.
Raw Spoon, 4-23-17
