Of Protesters and Rebels

We had a protester a couple of weeks ago.

He arrived just before worship and returned around the time we ended. He stood on the sidewalk outside our front doors, with a big sign and a headset microphone and speaker, to "greet" our members and guests as they arrived and as they made their way home. Several of us stood outside to welcome people in and out, to be sure they saw a friendly face and hopefully prevent him from yelling directly at them. We tried to talk with him, but (surprise!) he wasn't interested in conversation. Thankfully, he wasn't saying anything too extremely offensive...just that we were "harboring Democrats and baby killers" and that we supported "the Gay Agenda" and needed to REPENT!!

I won't deny, it did cause a bit of a buzz, a little tension and "what on earth? is he serious?" kinds of bemused conversation. But when I mentioned it as worship began, in order to further ease any discomfort and encourage people to be kind to him, a beloved member of our congregation spoke up and said, "It's OK, he is just telling the world how welcoming we are!" And the wonderful spirit of kinship we share at Epworth was further stoked, warming all of us from the inside out.

Praise God, I just love this place. So much. If he comes back, I am absolutely going to gather the entire church to go outside and circle around him, singing something fun about the love and grace of Jesus at the TOP of our lungs.

As he hollered outside, a thousand things were going through my mind. Things like, who is he? What events in his life have led him to this moment? What is his goal, really? What has led him to believe that this is an effective way to share the Good News? He evidently does this sort of thing a lot, at our summer parades and outside the high school, and has been spoken to by the police more than once. There is a wonderful pentecostal pastor in town named Jean who spends her early Sunday mornings driving to every church in town and praying for all of us (how amazing is THAT, by the way?); apparently she encountered our protester and tried to dissuade him to no avail, and let me know that he had been at Trinity Episcopal the same day, going back and forth between our churches. And, as he stood out there refusing to be in actual conversation, one thought overrode everything else: he doesn't know us at all.

When my kids were young, and before my youngest brothers and sisters had kids of their own and life kinda scattered all of us a bit, we spent almost every Sunday evening at dinner with my parents. It was crowded and loud and silly and joyful. I miss it. Sometimes we would get into very intense conversations about religion or politics, but not for one second do I remember feeling (or anyone else feeling) angry, or having any hard feelings toward each other. There was always laughter, and genuine affection, because we prized our relationships with each other above all else. That experience has given me a sense that people who disagree with each other can have whole, healthy, life-giving relationships.

Maybe that is why I feel so blessed to serve a church like Epworth. We are Democrats, Republicans, Independents, and Libertarians. We are as far Left (whatever that means) as you can get, and we are -- in the words of another beloved church member -- to the Right of Ghengis Khan. We are gay and transgender and straight; we are married and single and remarried and widowed. We are business owners and farmers, administrators and teachers and students, peaceniks and veterans and active military, nurses and musicians and bookkeepers and stay-at-home parents. We are not of one mind, on any pressing issue in our church or in our culture. We are put together in families as widely varied as you could imagine, and are as different as a group of a couple hundred people could possibly be. And we drive each other crazy, and love each other beyond all reason, because we know that none of those differences matter one iota. The things that bring us together are too important.

We share a passionate commitment to the transforming, life-changing power of Jesus Christ.

We love Scripture and believe wholeheartedly in the ability of God to speak through it into every part of our lives, and deep into our hearts.

We have experienced the movement of the Holy Spirit, and seen miracles of healing in bodies, spirits, and relationships.

We have been broken and made whole...we have sinned and been forgiven...we have been lost, and are found.

We have each come here to Epworth with a story, one that is uniquely our own, that has landed us in this place, with these people, in this moment. So we come here to worship, pray, serve, and sing, and learn with each passing day what it means to love one another.

"Here in this place, new light is streaming, 
now is the darkness vanished away. 
See, in this space, our fears and our dreamings, 
brought here to you in the light of this day. 
Gather us in - the lost and forsaken,
gather us in - the blind and the lame. 
Call to us now, and we shall awaken, 
we shall arise at the sound of our name.

Not in the dark of buildings confining, 
not in some heaven, light years away, 
but here in this place, the new light is shining; 
now is the Kingdom, now is the day. 
Gather us in - and hold us forever, 
gather us in - and make us your own. 
Gather us in - all peoples together, 
fire of love in our flesh and our bone."

~ from "Gather Us In" by Marty Haugen

So I pray that God continues to stretch and challenge us. I pray that we continue to learn from each other and teach other, sing together and pray for each other, and work together to serve those in need. Because we never feel the power of God more strongly than when we engage in that kind of holy, outrageous rebellion.

Love and blessings,

Pastor Dawn