The Golden Ass

Today, I attended a church in a part of town I wasn't very familiar with while growing up in my two story suburban house in a neighborhood of nearly all white people. I attended a church that apparently can't afford new blinds.

A murderer, thief, and adulterer gave a testimony that he's now a productive member of the community after having been given a life sentence in prison. I thanked him for his story and told him it looks like his life sentence got placed on Jesus at the cross, because he's free. He smiled and shook my hand.

The lady who spoke and witnessed before the offering was previously hooked on crack, in and out of prison, and an adulteress. Appropriately, she shared these verses with her testimony:

"The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord 's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn..."
Isaiah 61:1‭-‬2 NRSV

My favorite part of the day, I think, was the greying, pot bellied white guy with a cane and no rhythm who clearly can't dance (in a room full of people who do and can) but was doing so anyway with great exuberation in an environment full of hugs that clearly feels like home for him. I later found out he goes by Pastor Rick.

I was quite moved when I realized that he was like an icon pointing to the exiled and outcast Jesus who identifies with precisely the kinds of people who "don't fit in society" that filled the room.

I saw all sorts of Pentecostal excesses I deemed silly or even disagreeable. Rom. 8: 6 "To set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace" got translated instead in terms of "having the carnal mind" vs "having the spiritual mind." The preacher says: "We deal more with anger than we do with submission. When you feel like you're going to 'do something,' then submit...The Devil is not the problem. It's our CARNAL mind. You think somebody owes you something...the flesh don't like to be told what to do. The flesh don't like to behave."

Spiritual gets twisted to mean disembodied. In the sermon, if someone compulsively expresses their anger at me, the pastor's advice is to be sure and not tell them how that makes me feel. To instead go sit in a room and pray. His point is a good one, which is not to respond to compulsive anger with more of the same. To enact the way of Jesus rather than the violent way of the world. But there's no imagination for safely and gracefully befriending our bodily desires and responses so that they may be transformed and reordered in the presence of Christ. One prayer heard was: "We're gonna learn how to close our mouths, Lord God [rather than making others angry]."

But such silliness or disagreeableness is, in a sense, precisely the point of why I enjoyed today and the lessons presented to me as gifts. While I became present to my judgement over what I disagree with or over what I vainly and faithlessly deem below me on the social ladder, they were teaching me how to be human. I was quite moved. The worship leader, with his corny bodily contortions in reference to now unpopular 70's dance moves with a giant, toothy smile on his face, clearly knows what acceptance is. He is clearly comfortable in his own skin and in the presence of other silly, weird people like him, because we're covered by the love of Christ.

Those kinds of people are me. When I say I was moved, I mean to tears. Of repentance.

"The Holy Spirit is not a sad person...you know God has a sense of humor. Look who he called. He called me." - senior pastor George Eison