Journal: not the !*€'*! caretaker

So there I was with a day off and very little dome in the way of work (other than a few funeral calls, some pastoral stiff and a late night foray into the rainy night to overcome some welfare state/health service inadequacies). I potters a bit, tidied the study a bit, played with electronics, had brunch with the other half and watched a film.

Rushed out to do a quick call and on my return found a van (which I assumed was for the group meeting there later) parking up - so I left them to it. A little later one of our children popped into the church building to find something and was replaced by one of the other children as she also looked. Bottom line - I ended up going in and, as the caretaker, was challenged about not having opened up  and stuff.

So, I (nicely) point out that I'm not the caretaker and how the group have a key holder and how it's their responsibility to be there to open up and all that sort of thing. Seemed the group had been told that the people doing the whatever it was needed an hour to set up and no one had arrived. The rest is history (like the wallybean who has broken the heater controls in their desire to have the building heated to twenty-one degrees if I find them).

But you know, it's interesting how duplicitous people are - when they think you're the caretaker they know their rights, when you're the cleric they become different again! Fortunately I explained the issues and (kindly) left them to set up. But the tide is going out and the joys of living over the shop are diminishing as quickly as the mould grows!

Lord, You came as fully man as a servant to all - why isn't there just one story where you are mistaken for the caretaker of the shoveller of (You know what) so we can find a way forward with biblical integrity attached. Should I turn over the tables and use the whip I've made to drive them out? Perhaps I should just remain silent or ask them a cutting questions using the blatantly obvious?

It's not easy trying to pick up the cross at times is it?

Want a neo-Pagan/confused funeral?

Best go for a non-Christian (not actually sure it deserves the label 'humanist') service then!

Fancy a confused committal where the dearly departed is committed to Mother Earth and their spirit is set free to oblivion in the knowledge that because the people present will treasure their memories their life has found merit and meaning and they can rest safe in the knowledge that they lived for a purpose.

How's about being commended to 'all that is' and set free to be part of the whole realm of creation, tasking their part in the overall canvas of life and having the place they rest sanctified and hallowed to their memory for eternity?

The more I listen to people doing these services - especially the geezer what reads out cards, messages and emails as if it's a wedding - the more I wonder what some of these people are doing (other than making money out of the fact the customer knows nnnn 'Wasn't religious' so they offer something that is hopeless in oh so many ways!).

I am always surprised by the people who claim to have no faith and not be religious and the ways in which they cling to a hope of heaven, eternity and all that stuff. When I pointed out to one that what they'd delivered was the hope of Christianity coupled with some folklore and neo-confused pagan (ooooh, nature is so clever) tosh - the response was. 'Oh, but it gives them comfort to think there's more!'

Which is of course true but what I had before me was a snake oil salesman - offering hopelessness masquerading as hope and a terminal experience billed as something that with some confused continuance.

What makes it sadder is that some I have spoken to have told me how when the words, 'They weren't religious' are used by the person contracting the funeral then the potential for something 'humanist/non-religious' to be sourced is great. later though it transpires that this wasn't quite what the family might have wanted - they just didn't want to appear as if the deceased was an active Christian - and ended up with something quite different from that which they might have hoped for.

How very sad - and rather frustrating too :-(

Evangelism - it's not about 'converting' people

As our town moves nearer to Street Angels being a reality I was told of a conversation with a 'fellow Christian' (I'm sure you'll understand the inverted comma in a minute) regarding the opportunities it presented 'the Church' to get involved with those who are in town of an evening.

Their first response, having been told a bit about Street Angels, was, 'When do you convert them?' This was met with the observation, 'I don't think that we are there to convert or tell them about Jesus, but that, for that short time, we are there to be Jesus for them; to pick them up and help get them home safely.'

So they asked another question, 'What do you do the following night?' The response to which was, 'We pick them up again, and get them home, again!'

It was at this point that they declined to be involved on the grounds that what we were doing with Street Angels wasn't 'doing enough to grow the Kingdom' - And this is the reason why you will find in some churches see no real fruits because where they want scalps where Jesus wants servants.

The saddest thing is that many of those with attitudes like that displayed above are repositories of everything that is weird and off-putting to those outside and pretty distasteful to those within to as they live in their pathetic little 'holier than thou - avoid the unholy brethren' huddles! (Can you tell I'm frustrated? Problem is I've met it so many times with missioner hat on and yet I'm still shocked and frustrated as if it was the first time :-) )

So, for those of you in our area who have a servant heart for, and of, God - Street Angels is ready, willing and waiting for us to take up the challenge to minister God's grace (alongside those of no faith) because that is what Jesus would have us do. For in doing so we look, smell and act like Him.

We are not called to sit in our pathetic little huddles 'protecting ourselves from the world, the fallen and those whose theology and thinking we disagree with' - that's called being a cult!

(Yes, I am definitely niggled :-)  )

Jesus calls us to be salt, light and balm to the world - to take up our cross and follow Him, denying our sensibilities to cross the road and minister (ever read the 'Good Samaritan'?) to those who are neither of our faith or our friends.

This is how we fulfil the calling we have - not by hunting scalps and sharing the Gospel without first sharing bread, showing love and making Christ real!

Pax