Bella Sisters

Tomorrow is Sunday, and I will be on my way to church. Church. We tell ourselves this is not a building but a congregation; then we promptly forget that as soon as we say it, and we pick up our keys and our Bibles to be on our way. And as Jesus told the Samaritan woman, we tell the truth when we say we are on our way to Church, because we are not there yet. We are very far from what God knows the Church really is.

Elai took me to see a movie, and all I knew is that it was a chick flick and had really good singing. It was a chick flick, and it had really good singing. The theatre was full of young chicks. But among the song and dance and love stories in the movie, there was something else, an inordinately strong sense of community. The movie was about a sorority and the community life of the sorority, and beyond that, the legacy and community of past sisters that stood behind that sorority, and by the end of the movie, when all the past, elder, wise Barton Bella sisters joined the stage with the young, maturing Bellas and with the younger, new-blood  Bellas, every chick in that theatre wanted to be a Bella sister. I wanted to be a Bella sister! Our culture is dying for a sense of community—just watch the news.

I think of the communities I’ve been in: 1. The college grads that staffed the refugee camps in Honduras, eating wormy food; tramping through swamps to take censuses (censi?); sleeping together on a bed of slats under the only available mosquito net because the bugs were brutal, where a mouse crawled up my arm as I lifted the net to shoo it out; or sitting in a pipante for hours and hours as it was poled up the river to the next village, and wishing it would turn over so I could pee. 2.The staff at Ryerson Camp that got up early to pray together, bleary-eyed, nodding off, but content to be there sharing it all, because the kids were saying the most awesome things about God. 3.My church in Oaxaca who will be praying for me tomorrow. 4.My Mexican team, that I am missing right now--four couples that are working among four different language groups, helping their friends fall in love with God. (I have a list. Stick around.) And there is nothing like this sense of community.

And by God and all that is holy, this is what Church is meant to be. We forget the most astonishing words that ever came out of Jesus’ mouth in the entire time he was on earth, and if I made these words up myself, you would stone me for heresy. He said: “…and may they be one as we are one.” This is His high priestly prayer. And there is one thing I know about these words. They are the heart of Jesus, Son of God about to die for us, High Priest and High King of Heaven. These words come true.

My friends, my sisters and mothers and brothers, you and I, we will one day be one as the Trinity is One. We will make the Bella sisters look like shadows. That is coming.

But how do we make this reality now? I believe this is the only question out there. The Church, with all its faults, is God’s agent in the world to make it fall in love with Him. We are his mouth, and hands, and feet. And if we fail, God fails.

But we will not fail. Jesus heads this thing up and breathes his Spirit through it all. And if we settle for Church that is just a building, or for Church that just meets properly on Sunday for an hour, or for Church that is not hands and feet but just a mouth that feeds (or blasts) the sheep, or for Church that is just a Sanctuary for the proper ones, or for Church that is not desperately, recklessly, relentlessly seeking to be One as He is One, not just with those on the inside but with the rejected ones outside in the highways and the byways, then He corrects us. And we are being corrected. Look around. What is happening to Church as we know it in our culture? Why? We need to stop bemoaning and start learning. Learn to be more Church; learn to be more community, where elder sisters mentor the new blood, and together they serve those in pain.

To somewhat paraphrase Paul: "You that are elders: practice hospitality. according to your culture and personality. Have people in your home or visit or at least phone someone every week. Disciple. Form small groups that care and get to work (when people are complaining, it’s  a sign people are focused on themselves, not reaching out. Serving others stops complaining.) The rest of you: take their example." There are no guarantees. Churches die. But we can be obedient. And in the end, we win this battle.

If you walk away from Church, you walk away from God. So if you can’t stomach any church out there, check your heart--for God’s sake, make it work. BUT it could be there is no church out there that speaks your language, that will take you without abusing you. So if you just wouldn’t fit in any church you know, or worse, your friends wouldn’t fit in any church you know, start something. I’m not kidding—it might be easier than you’ve been told. It might not. It gets some people killed.  One way or another, get into God’s community, God’s great dream, God’s solution to this world. Make it happen. You’re his kid. He’ll be glad.