"How's the tape holding out?" Pete asked Mike.
"It's okay. You can start now, Dad," Mike advised.
"Thanks, Mike. I don't know how much I need to go over; you were all there. I guess I can cover a few highlights, anyway.
"As I've admitted on several occasions, I really wasn't expecting any of this. I read 'In His Steps,' and had what I thought was a good idea to liven up the church services. God obviously had another idea. Ev's ‘emancipation,’ Paul's semi-encouragement, the Hoffmann incident, the various pro and con responses, Debbie coming to us, Carolyn - well, it just grew. I was alternately overwhelmed with excitement and scared to death. I went overboard on a lot of things, and threatened to drive most of you crazy in one way or another. I did almost everything the hard way, and yet God honored it all and got us all through it. It hasn't all been fun, but it certainly has been interesting!
"Now, what did I learn this year that is worth passing on? How many sermons do you want? I have a few to catch up on."
"No sermons, Brother Josh," advised Paul. "That's not your business anymore, remember?"
Josh smiled, a little wistfully. "I remember. I do miss it, sometimes. Sermons were a part of my life for a long, long time, and I sometimes get the urge to wax eloquent."
"He takes it out on us," observed Mike.
"Watch yourself, young man. Have you no respect for your elders?"
"Sure, Daddy-o. Don't I always show it, Pops?"
"Time!" Evalyn interceded. "Just tell your story, Josh. We'll be up all night if you start getting silly, again."
"Yes, dear. Actually, let me tell a little bit about what I'm doing now, because I still am getting a chance to sermonize. My sermons are just fewer, longer, and in printed form."
"Your first book is almost out?" Pete inquired.
"Any day now, and I am moderately excited."
Ev clarified. "Translate that: I can't keep him on the ground most of the time!"
"The book is like ‘Pilgrim's Progress,’ right?" asked Donna.
"Well, it's that kind of story, in which people with Bunyan-esque names act out and are involved in all sorts of Christian and worldly situations. It's my idea of what a new Christian might run into as he or she begins the new life in Christ. It gives me a chance to preach a whole series of pointed sermons, too,"
"From ‘In His Steps' to ‘Pilgrim's Progress'," Harry observed. “What literary form comes next?"
"Now, that might surprise you. It certainly did me, at first. I've almost finished a manuscript about how Christians should treat the environment."
"I'm a little surprised, but this isn't exactly new ground for you."
Josh looked at him. He was a little surprised that Harry wasn't surprised. "What do you mean?"
"I'm remembering a certain sermon you gave. I can't think exactly how you got into it, but you were talking about Christians having some work to do on earth, before they got too involved in thinking about Heaven. You gave one rather graphically stinky illustration of how deep the garbage might get around us if we didn't regularly pick it up, if Jesus didn't return tomorrow, but 100 years from now."
Josh smiled. "I do remember that. I was trying to get across that, even though we're confident that Jesus is coming back, we had absolutely no idea when that might occur. Until He comes - be it tomorrow, or generations from now - we are stewards of both His land and His people.
"Well, I'm still right. I guess it is a case of my Christian social conscience catching up with spiritual interests. It seems to me that an awful lot of Christians are pretty naive about the world we live in."
“Maybe our heavenly orientation? You know, Christians are like airplanes: they're no use on earth."
"Maybe that is it, at least partly. But I also think that a lot of Christians in this country have been seduced into thinking that God, America, Capitalism, and Free Enterprise are all synonymous, and that we have some kind of right as individuals to do just about anything we want to do to the earth. One principal approach of the book is to remind people of God's greatest commandment."
“That we love one another,” said Bev. "I remember you mentioned that in that last sermon in Portland, and it started me thinking, too.”
"Right. In the book, I try to show that a lot of things that we're doing - polluting, wasting resources, not planning ahead - are hurting people now, and also are hurting people in the future. That's not loving! As you said, Harry, that sermon was about none of us knowing when Jesus will return. We hope it's soon, but if it isn't this could turn into a foul old planet, and life in the last days might not be worth living."
"Good point," Pete acknowledged.
"My other tack in the book is stewardship. Christians as a whole aren't very interested in nature; in fact, I think some of them feel it's almost pagan to like animals. Yet, God made a point of creating a tremendous variety of animals and plants - He really didn't need to, as far as I can tell - and He also made a point of assuring that every species of animal - probably plants, too, although the Bible doesn't mention them - made it through the Flood. That tells me that He cares a lot about all creation, not just humans, Since we're the only ones of His creations to whom He's given the ability to really mess things up, and also the only ones He made in His image and gave earthly dominion to, it follows that we have some really serious responsibilities.
"Well, that's a digression, but it's also part of what I learned this year. I really want to - and I think God has given me the talent to - talk to Christians about the practical, personal aspects of living the Christian life. Sermons in church can be good, but think of the potential audience I can reach with a good Holy Spirit-guided book. If I need any confirmation that I'm doing the right thing, I just think about having one book almost on the street and another well on its way, all in only eight months. In the publishing business, that's close to a miracle!
"Most of the other things I've learned come under the heading of insights into the relationship between church and Christianity. You all know how frustrated I was becoming with organized religion. Now that I'm out of the middle of it, I don't feel quite so negative, but I still feel that Christianity would be much better served if there was a little more separation between 'church' and 'state.' Those aren't the right terms, really. By 'church,' I mean the real Church - the Body of Christ - and by ‘state,’ I mean all the organized aspects of the religious experience that may or may not have anything to do with Christianity. I feel that, while the local church may sometimes be the pride of God's life, it must often be the bane of His existence! I guess the church in Portland was somewhere in the middle, all things considered. But I still think that, more often than not, I the pastor and we the board were making decisions and perceiving needs in the church more like corporate managers or club directors than like Holy Spirit-motivated members of the Body of Christ. As far as I know, we didn't do anything horrible, but I also know that many times we did a lot less than the best thing. And when I look around at other churches, I just can't be convinced that a bad church is better than no church at all."
"We've had this conversation before," said Paul. "And while I understand what you're saying, I just can't take it as far as you do. I keep asking myself, what are the alternatives? If you break away from an organized church, you quickly find you need some kind of organization to keep you going. So, what have you done? You've started another organized church."
"That's true, to some extent, but it's the kind of organization, and also who ends up calling the organizational shots, God or man. Let me tell you some of the things that I see happening whenever a local body of Christians become a ‘church.’
"First, I think the organized church plays on our human, non-spiritual desires to be comfortable, to see things as simple black-and-white, and to avoid personal responsibility. We often seem to want to be controlled, so we don't have to think for ourselves, and pastors - being leaders and the obvious source of all right thinking! - are often very happy to spoon feed the congregation what they want to hear."
"Harsh words," Paul gently chided.
"I don't think so, Paul. It isn't that all pastors want to be that way, but the whole system sets them up to be experts lecturing to students. That's not what my Bible says Christianity is all about.
"Second point, and it's the natural spinoff of my first, is that pastors and denominations, in assuming their mantle of authority and knowledge while giving the people what they want, have a tendency to preach only part of the Bible message. We ignore those parts that we don't understand or are uncomfortable with, emphasize those things that we most firmly believe, and sometimes even bend scriptures to help us justify our favorite personal or denominational beliefs. This wouldn't happen if pastors and congregations were Holy Spirit-directed, but our need for organization is really the antithesis of Holy Spirit leadership.
"Last, and then I'll shut up, I think organized churches tend to keep Christians believing in God, but not believing Him. If the church has lots of rules and regulations to obey and to judge other people's behavior by, then we don't need to trust God for anything. Everything is cut and dried, but God isn't cut and dried! That's what our talk about ‘situation ethics’ has been all about. We can't really love one another in God's way, if we've been taught a particular rule of thumb response to every situation."
Nobody had anything to say for a minute or two. Then Donna put some of her thoughts into words. "God must get really angry with us, at times."
"Maybe at times," Evalyn agreed. "But remember that He loves us an awful lot, and understands us very well. I think more often He just gets terribly sad. Sad to think that, after all these centuries, since He started with Adam and Eve and a garden, we still don't listen to Him very well."
They all drifted off into their own individual thoughts. Paul finally asked if anyone had anything else to say before they shut off the tapes. Harry responded. "Can we summarize everything we've learned in a few ‘one-liners’? Let's go around the room."
"One-liners?" asked Pete. "You mean like, God's not cut and dried; He practices 'situation ethics'?"
"Right. Another would be to approach everything in love. What else?"
They went around the room. "Remember the spirit of the Law, not just the letter."
"Trust Him and His word."
"If there's a question, what did Jesus say?"
"Let your light so shine... "
"Be wise as serpents, but innocent as doves,"
"If any of you lacks wisdom, call on the Holy Spirit."
"There's always more!"
"If God is God, then let Him be God!"
"Amen!" they all said.
"You know, that's a great ending to this story," said Josh. "But I was thinking about something we haven't talked about: the Hoffmanns. Has anybody heard anything about them?"
“Not a word or a sign," said Pete. "They both seem to have dropped out of sight."
Josh shook his head slightly, like he was trying to fight off a thought he didn't really want to have. "You know, it's ironic. The one thing about this year that really has been like 'In His Steps' is that the one who was actually the catalyst for the whole business is also a casualty - the beggar who the church wouldn't help, and Bob Hoffmann, who I couldn't help."
"But," protested Evalyn, "We don't know for sure that Bob is a casualty. We don't know where he is - and anyway, the game isn't over yet, is it? As far as I can tell, God's still working."
"In any case, he's not your casualty," added Harry. "The Holy Spirit has been right there for him, too. We all have choices to make."
"Oh, I know," said Josh. “You're both right, and I'm not really feeling any guilt. Maybe a little sadness, but no guilt. [t's just ironic, that's all."
"You know," said Pete, "There's something that happened in the book that didn't happen in real life: none of us opened up a soup kitchen."
Donna punched him, but Ev laughed, a surprised spontaneous little sound. They all looked at her. She smiled, happily. "You know, I'd been thinking the same thing."
"That's weird!" exclaimed Donna. "What have we done to you that you should think like Peter?”
"Really! But I don't mean that I was thinking specifically about soup kitchens. I was thinking about the kinds of things that happened to Sheldon's people, compared to what's happened to us. There aren't a lot of similarities, but why should there be? One of the things we've concluded is that God is a living, dynamic God who deals with each situation as He thinks best at the time."
She paused, and smiled as if she and God were sharing some special thought. "On the other hand, think what we just said about the Hoffmanns. The game isn't over yet, and God's still working. One of us might open that soup kitchen, yet!"
THE END
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