This is Us

We are the church, whether we are gathered or scattered--each one of us, a part of the body of Christ, wherever we go, whatever we do.

So, where can you find us, and what are we doing?

That’s Five Oaker Jay Preston and the fireplace mantel he designed and built for us. It only took 13 years! No, not the work Jay did. 13 years for us to get around to filing that empty space. And it looks great! Jay has been a dedicated behind-the-scenes volunteer who has helped us envision, create, and install all kinds of things around our building. Not only did he build a beautiful mantel for our fireplace, he also designed and created the hangers for the chalkboards on ministry carts and for the large Family Resource Center sign. Jay even designed the parts to safely anchor our bookshelves to the wall slats at the Family Resource Center. We appreciate Jay’s ability to envision a solution to a problem, create it, and install it. His talents have helped us “finish” many creative projects in our building!

How to Kill Discrimination in Your Heart

Lew Gervais, in a devotional, asks us to imagine a scene unfold in a church:

“Bill is wild haired; his wardrobe for college is jeans and a T-shirt with holes in it. He recently became a believer, a follower of Jesus, while attending a campus Bible study.

“Across from campus is a well-dressed, very conservative church. One Sunday Bill decides to go there. He walks in late and shoeless. The sanctuary is packed. Bill heads down the aisle looking for a seat. Having nearly reached the front, he realizes there are no empty seats, so he squats down on the carpet. The congregation is feeling uncomfortable.

“Then from the back of the church, a gray-haired elder in a three-piece suit starts walking toward Bill with a cane. The worshipers don't expect a man in his eighties to understand some college kid on the floor. With all eyes focused on the developing drama, the pastor is about to start his sermon, but he waits, wondering what the elder is going to do.”

Well, I’ll finish this exercise in imagination this weekend. I’ll tell you what he does. And what he does will be the beginning of a lesson on discrimination, the kind of discrimination that comes from prejudice. It’s what James 2 addresses, our text for this weekend.

I think it’s safe to say that most of us aspire to be non-discriminating. We aspire to care more about a person than about their outward appearance, their color, their ethnicity, the way they dress…all of that.

Yet we all discriminate and we play favorites. It’s usually done in subtle ways.

God wants to kill that impulse in us. And James shows how three big theological concepts—glory, kingdom, and love—have everyday, real world significance and can kill the impulse to discriminate.

We can be increasingly free to love and to see beyond outward appearances.

I hope to see you this weekend and maybe there’s someone you can invite who would resonate with this subject.

Photo by Matt Collamer on Unsplash