Month: March 2013

An Epiphany!  I love it when I get to have an epiphany!  It is like the moment when, in your head, pops the word you need to finish the crossword puzzle but 100 times better because it isn’t only an answer you find but God. 

Of course, it is the wrong season for Epiphany.  Today is about Jesus, the cross, and the realization that, within the worst parts of our humanity, lay the seeds for Jesus’ death.  It is a time of confession and tears.  How much have we lost as a human race?  How much have we killed?  What have I done?

The music of the Christian church grows solemn; the words of guilt placed upon our tongues as we confess that our ways are what killed Jesus.  Today we feel the distance between us and God…a distance caused by tuning into the wrong voices and forgetting to listen to the only one that matters.  With Jesus gone, the voice that connects us to God, the universe seems so vast; we so small.  Silence. 

Gone is the chatty prayer.  Our friend is gone. 

Jesus’ absence makes clear that what our souls crave is that voice of God’s love, of God’s healing, of God’s leading…the voice of Jesus. 

And, so here’s the epiphany.

I was planning a baptism service for Easter.  It seemed like a good idea except I wanted to spring it on those who came…surprise, today you can get baptized.  And, then I wanted to include a liturgy that would allow people to join the church.  You see, I’ve been called to a very small elderly congregation and I’m eager to bring in new and young members.  I figured we could do it all at once.  I had started working on a liturgy taking a little from the baptism service and a little from the membership service and, just in case no one had the courage to come forward, a liturgy of affirmation we could all speak together. 

It was in the kitchen, after Thursday night’s Messianic Seder, that it came up.  I bragged:  “We are going to have an old fashioned altar call on Easter,” to a long time member of the Disciple of Christ Denomination.  She said, “oh, we used to have those every week.”  And, I who had never seen one, asked…”so how is it done?”

Pastor Eric of our partner church was also helping clean the kitchen at the time.  Eric has never gone to seminary but he is wise and understands liturgy.  Unlike me, he’s gone to churches that offer altar calls.  They both told me that all you do is use a scripture to invite people to ask Jesus into their heart.  And, Pastor Eric suggested, I phrase it in such a way that people can rededicate themselves to Jesus; that way, the congregation doesn’t have to know everyone’s business.  The people come forward, you pray with them, and then afterwards you meet with them who took Jesus into their heart for the first time and set a date for a baptism.

Oh my goodness…how simple! 

And then it dawned me…I was going to replace the voice of Jesus with the voice that is crying out within me, the one crying out for new members.