Chief Among Chiefs

Christianity for the Next 1000 Years

In the beginning, God created skies and earth.

Welcome back.

Every Sunday morning at church, I make my way to the fellowship hall where the coffee pot awaits me.  My cup runneth over on the Lord's Day; one sip pushes my soul beyond regular glory to that elevation of presence uplifted a smidgen more via caffeine.  

On the way into the kitchen, where the great silver idol pours the divine sacrament into wholly hot and bulbous modern pottery made of glass, I always pass a table of old white guys who sit and visit through Sunday school. One of the men always quips that they are the sinners class.   

The voice from the old church-me of long ago blurts from the back of my head a comment that would seem wholly appropriate were these old guys young teenagers.  It goes along the lines of the responsibility to refrain from skipping Sunday School mired in a tone guilt. 

That voice is a throwback from more pious times that I am happy are passed.  

Instead, I laugh.  I say I should join them, and I would gladly, and may yet someday.  I feel I must attend my Sunday School class since I began going there a few weeks ago.  In Sunday School we are examining various affirmations of faith that have appeared in the history of First Baptist.  In a couple of weeks we will be studying the Gospel of Mark.  I would not want to miss that, for it is my favorite gospel.  Maybe I'll hang out with the sinners before we begin Mark.

I really should attend the sinners class.  I heard Barbara Brown Taylor explain sin as a word that points to something real in life.  Indeed.  

When I was in Campus Crusade for Christ, I always thought the strongest evidence that humans needed God was sin.  I was one generation removed from the worst blood bath in human history punctuated by a weapon that incinerated 150,000 people in a few seconds... twice.  Sin was certainly indisputable.

In my own life, I have always been blessed with the ability to look at myself in the mirror and wish I could file for a divorce.  I find the ability to blame myself for my bad decision making to be lacking in so many people today.  

Those who say we live in a culture of entitlement are correct.  It extends even more it seems to the attitude that I am entitled the right and reason to place blame for my faults on others and other circumstances.

Few want to place blame on that man or woman staring back in the mirror with a tooth brush in his or her mouth.  I know in a world of sin and iniquity, I am a chief among all the other chiefs.  

Blessings...