The Divine Crash

Last week, I was sitting in my office at the church and the phone rings.  Before I answer I notice that the caller ID says the name of a local church so I answer and say “Hello, Pastor Gilligan.”  The person on the other end proceeds to tell me they are calling on behalf of the Anti-Alcohol Coalition and they wanted to know if I could announce to my congregation the need to show up at a Borough Council meeting because there was a vote coming up to allow restaurants to serve alcohol in their outdoor seating area and that this was a great detriment to society.

This man meant well and was very sincere in what he was saying.  He honestly thought that allowing restaurants to serve a beer in their outdoor seating would destroy society.

I was very polite to this man (that I have never met) and I said to him “I have a 60 minute service and you want me to spend two of those minutes telling the people that the most dangerous thing for Christianity is alcohol outside in a restaurant?”  The man on the other side of the phone said “yes.”

I was a little stunned and asked him again “Are you telling me that the single largest issue facing Christians is that a restaurant wants to serve alcohol in their outside seating area?”  To this the man replied “Yes, this is a big issue that will lead to more crime, more violence, and more debauchery in our beautiful city.”   Besides the fact that no one says debauchery anymore there is no proof for anything he said.  At this point I was a little aggravated and said to him “Alcohol is not the biggest issue, I have no intention of sharing this with my congregation (until now, if they are reading this) and that I intend to spend that time sharing with my congregation the most important issue facing Christians today, that people are dying without know who Jesus is and without having a relationship with Jesus.”

With that the man grunted, grumbled for me to have a nice day and hung up.

This begs me to first apologize to those who do not follow Jesus or believe in Jesus.  To often those who call themselves Christians become obsessed with things that Jesus himself didn’t even care about.  Jesus enjoyed a nice glass of wine and at the wedding feast he probably drank it outside.  So I am sorry that some Christians are ridiculous in their legality and religiosity.

This also begs the question, what is the biggest issue facing those who claim to follow Jesus?  To answer that I think we have to ask, what was the biggest issue facing Jesus?  Shouldn’t that be the issue His followers take on?

If we look at Jesus there were a couple of issues that Jesus made sure he tackled, early on in the active part of his life he was very concerned that people were in relationship with Him, and God. He was willing to do whatever it took to make this happen.  Whether it meant getting people drunk, going to parties, healing blind people, raising the dead, or whatever it took that was a big issue for Jesus.  So if we are going to call ourselves followers of Jesus we should make sure everyone can be in relationship with Jesus, no matter what it takes.

The other issue that Jesus made sure to tackle was making sure his followers got along.  At his last meal Jesus tells his disciples that the bread is His body and the wine is His blood and that when people get together for a meal they should remember Jesus.  No matter what else is going on in life when it comes time for a meal it all gets put aside for a meal.

So then, maybe we should stop worrying about lesser issues and tackle the issues Jesus tackled, making sure relationship to Jesus happen and that people can coexist because of Jesus.

Filed under:
Random Thoughts by RevBT