Everyone in the class was bent over laughing - the sort of laughter that makes your stomach hurt. Some were even wiping tears from their eyes. Such laughter was not unusual in one of Dr. Leonard’s classes. A professor of Religious and Biblical Studies at Samford University, Dr. Leonard has a knack for humorously retelling stories from Scripture. For this particular class period, his comedic material came from the second chapter of Mark’s gospel.
It’s a familiar story for many. Jesus is at his home in Capernaum and people begin to gather there. Eventually, the home becomes so crowded that Mark tells us, “there was not any room, not even in front of the door.” A pastor today might be concerned about fire codes at this point, but not Jesus - he continued to preach. During the middle of his sermon, four people arrive at the house carrying their paralytic friend. Unable to enter the front door, they do the next best thing: they go to the rooftop and start digging through the roof.
This is when Dr. Leonard’s retelling of the story took off. “Imagine”, he said, “listening to Jesus preaching and then hearing loud banging on the roof above as these four people begin digging through the roof. The loud banging would be followed by a cloud of dust and dirt falling to the floor below and filling up the room that was already packed with people standing shoulder to shoulder.” Dr. Leonard continued, “As people are coughing and wiping their eyes from all the dirt and dust, they see a man being lowered from the roof above with his friends shouting directions at one another as they attempt to safely lower him to the floor.”
Dr. Leonard helped us see that this is a messy scene when you factor in the details. Even so, the paralyzed man that was brought to Jesus walked away healed and made whole.
In the last blog post, I spoke about the way worship at Church of the Reconciler breaks down divides. Another unique aspect of our worship service is what I’ll call the Mark 2 factor. No, we do not have people ripping apart the roof to get to worship - but our worship service does share some similarities with the gathering that took place around Jesus at Capernaum.
When read closely, you get the sense that the gatherings around Jesus - and the gatherings of the early church - were very lively.
Consider simply the setting of these gatherings in Scripture - a person’s home. I have no doubt that there were moments when worship was more undignified than decorous, more spontaneous than neatly orchestrated, with moments of commotion alongside moments of contemplation. Of course, these worship gatherings were not an anything-goes free-for-all. The Apostle Paul is clear that worship “should be done decently and in order” (1 Corinthian 14:40). Still, I imagine, Paul’s call for order in worship did not eliminate the messiness that comes when people gather together in community.
Pastor and writer, Eugene Peterson, was once asked what he loved most about the church. “The mess”, he answered. Peterson believed the church was a, “ haphazard collection of people who somehow get assembled into pews on Sundays, half-heartedly sing a few songs most of them don’t like, tune in and out of a sermon according to the state of their digestion and the preacher’s decibels, are awkward in their commitments and jerky in their prayers.”
If Peterson experienced the messiness of worship while serving as the pastor of a middle-class congregation in suburban Baltimore, it should come as no surprise that worship at Church of the Reconciler is messy.
At Church of the Reconciler, we find ourselves welcoming those struggling with everyday problems people face in any congregation, as well as those facing the unique challenges presented by homelessness, poverty, addiction, or mental health. People’s lives are messy. When people join us for worship on Sundays we do not ask them to check the messiness of their lives at the door. In some cases, they simply cannot.
Church of the Reconciler invites people to truly come as they are and so our worship is both lively and messy. Such messiness is a side effect of a place that is known to offer an unreserved welcome to anyone and everyone. Another side effect of such welcome is people walk away healed and made whole.
We welcome you to come join us for worship on Sundays at 9:30. I can assure you that you won’t have to dig your way in through the roof or check the messiness of your life at the front door.
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