My twenty cents keeps moving! - Misfits, Hobos and Hooligans (Oh My!)

Dec. 22, 2008

Misfits, Hobos and Hooligans (Oh My!)

"I've waited my whole life to belong to a church like this"

A friend of mine (who is in her 60's) said this to me last week after our children's Christmas program. I know what she means. Our church is the most eclectic conglomeration of misfits, hobos, and hooligans, with a few fine upstanding Christians thrown in the mix for fun. It is hard to describe, but I will try.

We have "regular" people, of course. And by that, I just mean people you would see at any Baptist church in the South. The blue hairs, the rednecks and the greybeards. Ok not many greybeards anymore, but we have a few middle aged women with chin hairs. (I've tried plucking but they keep coming back.)

We also have an assortment of homeless who come at varying times. And they don't all get along. It is amusing to hear them talk about each other-- they each deny being like the others, whatever that means. We have a couple of special needs adults. One guy has short term memory loss and will shake your hand 3 times in a row because he doesn't remember that he already shook it. And we have the neighborhood kids who are boisterous and rowdy. Yea even raucous (thank you Mr. Roget.)

And this is somehow the body of Christ. And I see it working. One couple hosts a Bible study in their home each week to study for Sunday School. The one-armed guy started coming, and last week he was baptized. The blue hairs bought Christmas gifts for the "hooligans." The special needs adults brought puzzles and coloring books for our homework helpers program for the kids. The list goes on as we discover how to function and minister and love as Christ loves us.

Honestly I ~~sometimes~~ usually leave the Sunday morning service feeling like I have wrestled a bear. Sitting with these boisterous kids, I don't always catch every word the preacher says. I am having to adjust my definition of the word "worship." Where I might have once pictured scented candles and soft music and heartfelt prayer, I get instead smelly kids and loud "whispers" and me praying that the preacher doesn't have to stop preaching and tell them to be quiet (again).

The preacher asked at Christmas two years ago, "Can you worship in a cattle stall?" I got the metaphor then, but now it seems less figurative. Can I worship with the misfits and hobos and hooligans? Isn't this what Christmas is about? Jesus came to us, and became one of us. He hung out with the misfits; He himself was a hobo; and I have my suspicions His disciples were rather boisterous at times. Hooligans maybe?

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners [all of us: misfits, hobos and hooligans], Christ died for us.

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