If you've ever been to Montezuma, Georgia then you know there's no reason whatsoever to go.
There's nothing there ... except Mennonites.
There's lots of Mennonites in Montezuma.
If you know anything about Mennonites you know they're actually "Anabaptists" ... part of the original Protestant reformation who believe growing things naturally make for better food served in restaurants ... so they open really fine restaurants that are like stepping back in time ... because they dress like the Amish ... believe sex is bad ... though they don't fight about it because they're pacifists and refuse to fight about anything!
Anyway Guy and I are sitting in "Yoder's Ditsch Haus Restaurant and Bakery" ... Yoder's Dutch House ... stuffed with really good home cooking served by really plain looking yet wholesome women wearing blue bonnets on their heads.
"What you want to do now?" Guy asks.
"Let's go to Koinonia," I burp.
If you know Greek then you know "Koinonia" means "fellowship" ... like in the Book of Acts when it's used to describe what the first followers of Jesus did after he was crucified, raised from the dead and went to Heaven leaving us the Holy Spirit.
"And they devoted themselves to the Apostles' teaching and the fellowship ... koinonia ... to the breaking of bread and prayers" (Acts 2: 42).
The "Koinonia" I want to go to is a farm about half-an-hour outside of Montezuma, Georgia.
If you've ever been to Koinonia Farm you know it's a Christian commune dedicated to living out faith just as those first Christians did in Acts 2 with the principals of (1) treating everyone with dignity and justice (2) choosing love over violence (3) sharing possessions and living simply, and (4) love the land.
You don't see many folks trying to actually live out their faith like the very first Christians did!
There's even fewer than there are Mennonites!
So Guy drives me to Koinonia which is a very large Pecan Farm, bakery, commune and retreat center where Habitat for Humanity was born.
Yes I said commune ... like the places commie Hippies formed in the 60s ... though Koinonia Farm actually started in the 40s by a University of Georgia graduate with a degree in agriculture who later went to The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and got a Ph.D. in New Testament Greek.
If you've ever been to The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, like I have, then you know Southern Baptists are nothing like Mennonites because they believe they're the only Protestants and will fight you if you say otherwise ... conduct hostile takeovers of restaurants immediately following their Sunday service ... publicly claim sex is bad but screws mostly everybody ... and loves buildings and war more than Jesus.
Regardless, Clarence Jordan who founded Koinonia Farm is one of my heroes and if the Seminary was good enough for him then it was good enough for me ... though later the Southern Baptists publicly denounced both of us as pagan, Commie, Hippy heathens.
At Koinonia I wanted to visit the little shack where Clarence wrote "The Cotton Patch Gospels" ... he translated the Bible from the original Greek into the southern vernacular of the Jim Crow 1960s and he set the whole story in Georgia.
So Jesus was born in Gainesville ... was tempted by the Devil atop Stone Mountain ... biscuits represented his body at the Last Supper ... he was crucified in Atlanta ...
Guy and I arrive at the Farm and standing under the grove of Pecan trees, I remember Clarence's translation of the Beatitudes when Jesus gave the sermon on the mount.
Most of us believe the Beatitudes are separate verses directed at different people ... meek people will inherit the earth ... poor people will filled.
"The so-called Beatitudes are not so much separate verses, as I was taught in Sunday School," Clarence says. "These are the great ideas governing the development of the Movement ... They are the stages of metamorphosis ... the process of changing one's whole philosophy of life."
Looking at it this way, each verse is a step, or stage, leading to the next until you are "born again" as a follower of Jesus ... and a living part of the Movement.
The spiritually humble are God's people, for they are citizens of his new order ... the first step is to be humbled and be in a place where you need God and are willing to say so.
Those who are deeply concerned are God's people for they shall see their ideals become reality ... humility and a relationship with God leads to dreams of a new world!
Those who are gentle are God's people for they will be his partners across the land ... humble people in relationship with God have a tenderness about them!
Those with an unsatisfied appetite for the right are God's people for they will be given plenty to chew on ... a burning for justice for others is born and germinates as we grow in our relationship with God!
The generous are God's people for they will be treated generously ... God's people give to justice and, in return, receive gifts of justice.
Those with pure motives are God's people for they will have spiritual insight ... increasingly, we grow to care mostly about others more than ourselves and God speaks to us in deeper ways than before.
Women and men of peace and good will are God's people for they will be known everywhere as his children ... our actions define us and people know we're in a relationship with God without us having to say anything!
Those who have endured much for what's right are God's people and they are citizens of his new order ... it costs a lot to get to this point ... family, friends, reputation and money ... but you gain God in a deeply personal way!
You are all God's people when others call you names, harass you and tell all kinds of false tales on you just because you follow me. Be cheerful and good-humored because your spiritual advantage is great. That's the way they treated women and men of conscience in the past ... people will hate you for this, just as they hated Jesus, but don't stoop to their level or become one of them because God is with you ... that's the advantage.
It's a different way of looking at following God isn't it?
Where are you in the steps of becoming part of God's world ... living the way God intends life to be lived ... being the person you're meant to be?
Notice what's not part of the steps towards God.
Attending Church ... abstinence from most anything ... political persuasion ... cussing, dancing, chewing or going out with others who do.
Here's the thing.
"The proof that God raised Jesus from the dead is not the empty tomb but the hearts of his transformed disciples. The crowning evidence that he lives is not a vacant grave but a spirit filled fellowship! Not a rolled away stone but a carried away Church!"
That's what we're about here at Bar Church!
Completely carried away as we celebrate life!
