“Missed you at Bar Church yesterday,” I said to Whitley has he joined Johnny O and I at the Breakfast Club Counter.
“I was with the frozen chosen,” he said sitting between us.
“Presbyterians” I asked.
“Yep,” he said sipping his coffee.
And Bar Church is very different from any other that I’ve ever attended. I took my friends from college yesterday who wanted to see it for themselves. First of all there are advertisements for Budweiser everywhere. You don’t see that in most churches though the beer may be consumed there.
Then the bar had votive candles at every seat transforming it into a different kind of alter. Sam Adams has a giant screen with the words of songs on it and leads the congregation of smokers, Pirates, barflies, waitresses and cooks; just a bunch of regular people. I didn’t see any doctors, lawyers, teachers or elected officials. The holiness is down to earth and there is a spontaneity that equals the scripted stuff that the Pentecostals do when they gather.
Gordon sits at the bar wailing on his harmonica. Between verses of Praise songs Sam will yell, “Lead us in worship Gordo,” and the harmonica lifts the spirits of everyone there.
After a while Sam introduced yesterday’s speaker, a former minister named Joe. He had been married for more than 20 years, had done all of the things he was supposed to have done and his life looked like it, and was successful like you’re supposed to be at that age.
Then his wife left him and his life all fell apart. Most churches don’t hire “damaged goods” so Joe’s life was rearranged overnight.
I could relate. So could most everybody else in the room based on their reactions as they nodded, yelled out and pumped their fists in the air.
Later my college friends and I were having lunch at my house. We sat around the table munching through a thoughtful conversation. Transition abounds in our lives. We’re living on faith. We’re either hoping for change, changing or are on the downward slide of change. We shared our stories.
Relationships didn’t work out the way that we believed. We found ourselves with little love in our lives. Careers didn’t work out the way we meant for them to. If we can take it a year at a time for just four more years then … perhaps we’ll make it.
“I dunno,” I said at one point, “I did all of the stuff that you’re supposed to do; all the stuff that God asks of us, and was wildly successful. Sure I had my share of screw ups … who doesn’t? And now I’m in this transition and am not quite sure where I’m going. But I believe that God will help me work all of this out.”
One of my friends looked at me and we shared tears at the same time.
“Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery, none but ourselves can free our minds,” sings the major Prophet Bob Marley. And that is true! Only we can push ourselves towards God and in new directions and new lives.
And none but ourselves can free our hearts either.
I’ve been in relationships that were good for a while but then they weren’t. I don’t think that it’s anybody’s fault. You do the best you can, giving it your all. But then one day you either leave for yourself or you are left behind and there is only yourself.
This is where emancipation comes in. We have to free our minds from what was once to what is now. We must emancipate our hearts because the love that was there is no more though hearts must have love.
So we emancipate ourselves and do these things and if we do we find redemption.
And we sing.
And if we don’t?
We die a little every day. Until we are completely dead.
