The building looks rustic and kind of worn down. I’m not sure that I would necessarily enter here had I not known that a church meets here. The sign said “Pete’s Candy Store”, but when I entered, I didn’t see any licorice, or Pop Rocks, or Snickers bars. Pete’s Candy Store turns out to be a bar. The pastor of the church, Jay Bakker, had come and visited my church in San Diego about a year ago. He had told us then that they met in a bar, but I assumed they had moved to a candy store. The place overall was empty. One bartender was busy roaming around the facility, I guess preparing the space for church. I check my $200 pocket watch (AKA cell phone) and it’s 3:30 pm. I’m early. Two hours ago, I thought I wasn’t going to make it at all. I thought I’d be dead by now, but I made it. I thought, should I order a beer? I feel bad just sitting here. I knew that this church is edgy, I was pretty sure they don’t have issues with a person having a beer, but I didn’t know if the bar was actually open or if this space was just used for church on Sunday. But then again, I didn’t want to offend the bartender if they were open and expecting business. I found a seat at a table as a few more people appeared, and I could overhear one guy talking to these two women, about my age. I surmise that the guy is a regular here, and the other two are visitors. I later overhear them say that they are from Seattle. There’s a fine line, isn’t there, when it’s ok to eavesdrop a little? I mean, I was interested to know that they too were visiting, and I thought, ok I can strike up some conversation. But at the same time, I didn’t want them to know that I was eavesdropping. So I didn’t say anything.
In the awkwardness of sitting in a bar, doing nothing, eavesdropping, not drinking a beer, and not talking to anyone, I decided to grab my backpack and walk into the next room, where the gathering would later take place. It was a small, narrow hall leading to a low-lit stage. No drums, no guitars, no piano. Just a chair and a microphone. I decided to pull out my notebook and begin writing down my New York adventures thus far. Twenty minutes, I am writing and eavesdropping on the conversations of more people who make their way in – friends, regular attendees, visitors, and some people who just came to get a beer. I start to see people making their way into the meeting area, some with a tasty looking beer, some with a soda, some with nothing, but most were my age, with piercing, tattoos, dyed hair, and edgy clothes. Now, the beer looks good and I know it’s acceptable for me to have one, so I check out the selection. I am a fan of trying new beers- local brews, micro brews, home brews. So I get the Brooklyn Lager. Not bad – it has a little bit of a stronger bitter hopsy taste than I prefer, but after a few sips, you get past it and can enjoy it - kind of like a visit to New York, really. I find my seat again as the speaker begins. It’s not the lead pastor, Jay, but the assistant pastor.
The speaking is friendly, close, and intimate, though still amplified with a mic. He shares some stories about his week, baseball’s opening day, and where Jay is. He then begins to tell us that he has been struggling with a word lately. A Christian word, the word “Blessed.” I immediately relate and feel like I know just what is coming. He comments on how Christians always use this word, but we don’t really know what it means. When you ask someone how they are, they respond, “Oh, I’m blessed, just blessed.” Sometimes someone will pray, “Bless my friend who is struggling with this or that.” Then he says, how about Kanye? You see him on MTV’s Cribs and he says, “oh, I’m just blessed with all of these things.” I love what the assistant pastor said after that. He said, “No, Kanye you were not blessed with these things. These things are a byproduct of what you were blessed with.”
As he was speaking, I began to remember the essay that my friend, Brad just wrote for ecclesiacollective.org. I remember that Brad posed the question, why are the 10 commandments quoted more than the Beatitudes? Blessed are the meek, Blessed are the poor, etc. As I am thinking of this, the speaker tells us that Blessed comes from the Latin, Benedicere, which means “to speak well of.” He goes on to say this means to affirm someone, to say yes to their belovedness. More than this, he quotes an author, Henry Nowen, saying that to bless someone is to recognize their original goodness.
I think, I’ve never heard of original goodness, just “original sin” which supposedly means we’re all sinners because of Adam and Eve, right? But now I am hearing that we are originally good. God made us good, didn’t He? He said it. I also found it interesting that a few days ago I wrote about how we need to recognize each other more. This is the same – recognize someone’s original good. No matter how messed up we are, we were originally good, not sinners. But churches are packed, preaching the message of original sin, the “Thou shall not’s” of God, but not Jesus’ message of “Blessed are the lowest of the low, the least of these my brothers, original goodness.” After my grandpa’s 90th birthday party on Friday, I sat down and talked with one of the residence here in this retirement community. Her name is Nan. She is a Unitarian Universalist. I asked her many things about theology, her religion, war, peace, social justice, and it seemed like every answer she had started with the same theme; “If God is within us all, how can we kill each other? If God is within us all, how can we say ‘I am right and you are wrong about Jesus?’ If God is within us all, how can we pick and choose who should have which rights?” Now, as I am being told about original goodness, I think of that- God is in each of us.
I remember a few different churches I’ve been at who had alter calls towards the end of the service. The alter calls always have something along the lines of “you must find God, you must invite him into your heart to cleanse you.” I, like many others never knew God was lost. I believe God is already there in our hearts, whether we recognize him or not. Whether we are Christian, Jewish, Muslim, we were all made by God and as a person who likes to create things, even though I wouldn’t always say it’s art, I know that a piece of me goes into everything I create. God is in everything.
I just finished reading a book, Beautiful Boy about a father’s struggle with his son’s addiction. It’s a great book! Throughout the book, the author makes it clear that he has never believed in God, and he raised his children without church or religion. I know that some Christians would take this as a reason why it is that his son became an addict, but that would be a horrific judgment. There are far too many Christian families with addicts to somehow state that Christianity - or any religion for that mater - prevents addiction. However at some point in his book, he makes the statement that in desperation, he began praying to a God that he never believed in, “Please God, heal Nic.” He repeated it over and over in his book. “Please God, heal Nic. Please God, heal Nic.” A God that he never accepted, a God that even at this time he probably didn’t believe in, a God that he didn’t find during an alter call. “Please God, heal Nic.” By the end of the book, there is still no evidence that the author believes in God. He doesn’t make any statements that God saved his son’s life, or that God is The Way. But can’t we see that something happened here? The movement that happened in this man’s life in desperation was a much more powerful motion than walking up to the front of a stage in front of hundreds of Christians clapping because you “accepted Christ into your life” (say it with a southern Baptist accent, it’s better). This movement occurred in his heart. I don’t know, maybe it is still moving for him today. Maybe not. But it is powerful. It is a testament that God is indeed inside of us all.
As I sat there, I thought about how thousands of churches in California were passing out petitions for the last months to really discriminate against children of God. Petitions to define who may marry whom. And why? Well, because the Bible says so, right? Marriage is between one man and one woman. The problem is, I seem to remember, in the Bible, Jacob - the father of the 12 tribes of Israel, a man who was chosen by God, a leader - Jacob had 4 wives. Marriage is between one man and a woman though. I don’t support polygamy at all, but my point is, you can’t use the Bible to say same sex marriage is illegal, but forget it when you say Polygamy is illegal. If marriage is between two people and God in the first place, then it shouldn’t even be in our politics. Why is it a legal issue? It’s not a marriage between two people, God, and the government.
I am thinking about these things as the speaker continues, and I think about an image I saw on The Revolution Church’s website the day before, it said, “Equal Rights are a Moral Issue.” The morals that are being preached today in churches and in government are not Jesus’ morals, so how do our leaders call themselves Christian? I still can’t comprehend how so called Christians can refuse justice, peace, and pure love through their words and actions.
Is God inside of each of us? Are we made of Original Good? Bless each other – meaning, recognize the original good of each other – through all of our crap, through the junk, through the sin, through the pain we cause each other. Can we even recognize the original good of oppressors? The original good of politicians? The original good of churches that profess a God of hate, war, and discrimination? How about the original good of terrorists? What would that look like, what would that mean? Based on my opinions a few days ago, it would mean that we would bring out the best in these people. Hate only leads to Hate. Judgment leads to Judgment. War leads to War. So doesn’t Peace lead to Peace? Doesn’t Love lead to Love? When can we try it?
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