I spoke with two folks on Tuesday.
In their 80s, weak(er) and frail in their old age.
Unable to attend the church due to several medical problems.
I visit them not frequently. (to my shame)
But the Lord delivered me to their home on Tuesday.
The ministry of a small town pastor, to a pastorate reeling from a religious opression and lack of Biblical descipleship, is a benign formality that destroys the soul.
except for one thing... the Lord sees us,
He is about
His business.
(the author weeps at his laptop in the coffee shop)
"Tea vicar?"
The conversation could almost begin like that, if it didnt ruin the religious pride that 'we are NOT Presbyterian, we are Baptist!'
But this is
NOT how it goes with these two folks.
We have become friends.
He gives me books from his burgeoning library.
I visited her in the hospital when she had a fall.
They write us, even though they live less than a half a mile away.
Liz writes back, touched by their genuine affection.
So we meet in the kitchen.
Its the only room not out of sorts because the 80 year-old husband is the sole caretaker for the deteriorating health of his wife.
They are embarrassed of this.
She apologizes to me for not getting up as I enter the room. I am inwardly offended that a woman in her 80s thinks she should be standing as the 'Minister' enters the room. But she means to show respect for God in this gesture.
'Religion'.
(the author spits out the bad taste of the word)
I am enamoured by their gentle demeanour and their honest appreciation of the fact that I have made some more time for them lately. They tell stories about early days of youth and marriage. Riding around the towns from meeting to meeting on a motorcycle. (The pleasant idea of her on the back of a motorcycle at her present age wafts throught my mind). How honoured he was to be asked in his youth the head up a Scripture Union group at a local school because he had become known as a strong evangelical Christian.
80-something..., twice my lifetime.
Live another life, with two stories a day, and then try and sit down with a minister at the final seasons of life trying to tell the best ones in an hour. This is the treasure trove I stumbled accross.
Something of the conversation tripped my recollection of a recent sermon point that their experiences illustrated, triggering a 3.5 minute sermon blurb. Soon we are talking about the congregation and the Sunday service that they so miss and wish they could attend, and how they are sorry they are not more faithful (the religious performance beast muscles its way back into the room)
("they stabbed it with their steely knives, but...")
I cant recount a verbatim because my mind is constantly distilling experience to pictures and intuitions. I wish I could walk you through it. How glorious, the path that God led us along this Tuesday.
One thing led to another and we were talking about health, and mental anguish, and ostracization by the church that they had poured their life out upon like a drink offering. They, in their senior years, wondering if they had properly estimnated the alter of their sacrifice; or was it more like david pouring out the water from the well in Bethlehem onto the ground than Paul's life of obedience poured over a most holy faith.
What broke my heart was the realization that I was the first person whom they felt they could speak to about this. I empathized with them, I listened, I offered no solution. I declared that they were in fact faithful. I expressed my sorrow at their efforts to participate, only to be rebuffed as unhelpful. I agreed about how frustrating it must have been to have had a minister previously who acknowledged the problem and refused to confront it, when a small group grabbed the helm of the ecclesiasical ship and shut out the balance of the congregation. She pointed out how he would not abandon the fellowship in his heart and how they had continued as members despite the offense and abandonment.
God spoke to them and it sounded just like my voice!
God spoke to this couple, now 80 something,
(as Liz and I will one day be if the Lord tarries)
God used David fraser to decalre that their estimation of the wrongness in how they were treated as members of the fellowship was valid. That there was a sickness woven throughout a fellowship where sin persisted, acknowledged but unadressed.
And He spoke to them: "Well done My faithful servant! I saw those dark days. I have not forgotten you and I have brought help."
I recalled the words "Strangers shall stand and tend your flocks; foreigners shall be your plowmen and vinedressers"
And this fella spoke words that broke a curse, words that freed me, as litteral light shone through the clouds outside and into the kitchen, the last bastillion of order and tidiness in their home.
He said: "David it was like...it was like, there were these 'IMPOSTERS' who had occupied the church, and on Sunday they stand there smiling like 'hello, good morning!' but under the surface, they were the most devious sort of persons!"
That he had said it out loud, affirmed his unnamed hurt and brought healing. She was vindicated that it had been named in the home and confirmed by the present overseer of the church. When I bounded home to Liz to declare that God had done a wonderful thing
(one which I couldnt express to the depth of it), Liz discerned something true about the change in my countenance.
(Also amazement that I would be at a loss for words ;)
And he had given words to the gloom in which Liz and I have ministered these three years. And it was like legion gave her name to Christ at that moment and some dreadful chain fell to the ground and the gates openned up and we were walking out together
She and he; and Liz and I; walking together out of a prison.
It was like a batton had been passed and they were relieved
and we were empowered for a very real battle.
I was reminded that I sat with another couple of ladies on another day weeks ago. One dear lady declared proudly to me: "Do you know that there was a time that every office in the Masonic Lodge was held by a member of Alva Baptist Church!
But now my sons have walked away from us"
As if the faithful service of the Baptists at the lodge was a testimony to the influence of the Church in the community at large. "You know all their rites come right out of the Bible!" said she, as her pal nodded in agreement. Dear friends, and simple women who love the Lord and walk blissfully in ignorance with regard to the pagan witchcraft in their midst.
This is the state of the church in Alva.
We plant a church in the war-torn shell of the desolation that is 'compromised Christianity'. They watch from the sidelines, tired from years of labour, ridden with carnal habbits and seething contempt for sincere righteousness. Smiling when the light shines, agreeing with truth on the surface, waiting perhaps for opportunity to assert their will. But God has called us.
This work is not a bit desireable and hard
and fruitful.
People are blessed for the change and life has returned.
But dandilions are dilligent and pervasive. Wheat and tears...
Named..., the evil has broken
and we are feeling something of a fresh breeze.
the battle cry goes forth from this page to the ends of the earth.
Will you pray for a holy army to come to our aid along the Hillfoots?
That the Lord would confound the enemy of our souls?
That worship will rise along these hills!
That the word of God would go out and find good soil?
That fallow fields and ferril hearts would be cleared and cleansed and granted life agin in Christ. That we, His servants, would continue to know protection and provision?
Please please please?
Rev 2:12-17 (ESV) 12 "And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: 'The words of him who has the sharp two-edged sword.
13 "'I know where you dwell, where Satan's throne is. Yet you hold fast my name, and you did not deny my faith even in the days of Antipas my faithful witness, who was killed among you, where Satan dwells.
14 But I have a few things against you: you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam, who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the sons of Israel, so that they might eat food sacrificed to idols and practice sexual immorality.
15 So also you have some who hold the teaching of the Nicolaitans.
16 Therefore repent. If not, I will come to you soon and war against them with the sword of my mouth.
17 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.'
Something has changed...
