Chapter 5 LATER IN THE WEEK

Later in the week, he had lunch with some of his clergy friends. There had been an incident earlier in the month that had ramped up the racial tensions in the city. Roy, a Black clergyman, was really angry about what was happening not only in the city but around the country. “I say that any good Christian should be out in the streets demanding justice.”

“I agree that racism is a major sin destroying our ability to trust and build community,” said Floyd. “What I don’t know is what we can do about it. My church is tense as it is with all the distrust in society. If I tried to get them to come into the street, they’d probably tell me I can go into the street but to keep on going. Don’t come back.”

Urk toyed with his French Fries and then took a drink of his iced tea. “I’ve been thinking a lot about this,” he said. “I confess I don’t know what my members really think about their faith and how it invites us to act.”

“What are you talking about,” Jennifer asked. “Who knows what they believe? I even have some doubts myself.”

“What I was thinking was, “Urk said slowly, “what if we asked our members what they believed.”  

“You mean about racism,” said Bryan. “First of all, most of us White dudes don’t want to talk about it because we know we are guilty but don’t know what to do about it.”

Roy and his Black colleague, Zeke, looked at each other and rolled their eyes. “As long as we are being honest about this, you know that if we are faithful to the Gospel and genuinely try to ‘love our neighbor,’ we’d have to act.” said Zeke.  

“But what can we do we do that has any chance of making a difference,” said Jennifer. “I don’t control the justice system or the school board, let alone the banks and the real estate business. If I start thinking about it, Zeke, I just want to cry.”

“Do you really think God approves of our churches being quiet,” offered Bryan.

“Of course not, just as God wouldn’t approve of lots of things we do in the church. But God is not down here trying to make our budget or keep our bills paid,” said Eric. “I’m sorry,” he continued, “but real is real. It’s not going to do a whole lot of good if our churches collapse or if I lose my job and can’t support my family. Why challenge them if we don’t really know what we can do to change things.”

Chapter 6 WORSHIP AT THE CENTER

“Not only that,” said Eric, “but with some program like Zoom, we could have some multi-church worship experiences at the same time.”

“You know,” said Felicia, “we could really get into this shared worship thing.”

“What are you thinking about?” asked Urk.

“What is at the heart of the practice of our whole faith,” asked Felicia. “Isn’t it that we are invited to confess our sins, even those of our racist past, and, not because we deserve it but because God wants us to live into our wholeness, we are forgiven and liberated to live our best. It would be interesting if we invited them to confess in the presence of others and seek God’s forgiveness.

That is, as I understand it, the essential meaning of grace. If we confess our past, we can be set free to live a better future. If t worked for David and Bathsheba, maybe it can work for us,” said Brent.

“Maybe,” said Roy, “we could also develop a contest to see who could build the best picture of what it would look like if as churches we committed to living out the kingdom of God that we all pray for in the Lord’s prayer. We might even learn to forgive our debts as we forgive our debtors.”

“I think we have just described some of the main elements in our weekly worship service,” said Fred. If we are really going to get into this, let’s work on developing some ways to help our people see the worship services in a more powerful way.”