The Church That Should Be…

 

My father was a minister.  While growing up we had a whole host of individuals and families visit at our home.  My mother would always go through a ritual just preceding each visit.  She would spend at least a day or so scrubbing, cleaning, and polishing anything and everything around our home.  By the time she finished, the carpets were clean, the furniture was shiny, the beds were made.  By the time company appeared, our home looked like one of those display homes on a home tour.  As a kid it was a mixed blessing.  One the one hand, it was nice to have my room cleaned by someone other than me; while on the other hand, my mother turned into a drill sergeant.  We had to use coasters, wipe off the kitchen counter if we used the kitchen at all.  Those few hours prior to the arrival of company  was tough going.  I still remember those days.

Over the years and up to the present I have engaged and been engaged by people and their opinions and thoughts about the church.  As you can imagine there are any number of “takes” on what the church should be about, who should be a part of a given congregation, and where and how funds should be spent.  I would like to focus a bit on the issue of just who should be a part of a congregation.  There is a unique parable in Matthew’s gospel.  It is entitled, “The Parable of the Wedding Banquet”.  Basically, a king is about to host a wedding for his son and sends out his servants to invite the guests.  The guests do not show up so the King sends his servants out yet again.  This time the invited guests pummel the servants.  The King, fed up with his initial guests, tells his servants to go out to the “street corners” and invite anyone and everyone to the banquet so much so that the banquet hall was filled.  What does that parable have to do with my mother’s cleaning habits? 

I would suggest that there are two kinds of congregations:  the congregations that “should” be, and those congregations which are what they are.  A brief history of our Church, First Baptist Church of Denver, will tell you that at one point in our history we were an “uptown” church; we courted professionals, senators and leaders of different sorts.  We had an image to maintain and worked hard to maintain it:  we were a congregation/church that should be.  That is to say, we spent a lot of time making sure our image was meant to impress the “movers and shakers” in our fair city.  Well, times have changed.  Now First Baptist Church of Denver is an ongoing banquet, if you will, inviting all those “who are weary and heavy-laden” to our banquet.  Therefore, on any given Sunday you might see attorneys, teachers, bus drivers, homeless people, individuals with different lifestyles, different backgrounds, different races, different ethnic backgrounds, different ages, and on it goes.  We have decided and made it our focus to be inclusive to people who live in the world:  we are a congregation/church that is what it is!  One of the side-effects is that this is a very liberating thing.  We, like Henri Nouwen, presuppose that the stranger comes bearing gifts. 

So, while we spend time cleaning our “house”, polishing the furniture, and sweeping the floor, we do not totally focus on that aspect of the banquet.  We are who we are.  I would go so far as to say that just about everyone who attends our congregation has either a wound or a scar and certainly a story to tell.  Unlike my dear mother, we, at First Baptist, have opened the doors and feel that those who show up are here because they want to be.

 

Pastor Gary Bowser