Would Jesus Go To Church?

Like most good Southern boys raised in Southern families in the 1960's, I grew up in the Church ... and yeah ... it was as Southern as Baptists can get which turns out to be pretty southern since the Church was born when it split from northern Baptists over the question, "Is it Biblical to own slaves?"

Northern Baptists said, "NO."

Southern Baptists answered, "Who needs you!"

And that's how the Southern Baptist Convention was born.

The First Baptist Church of Port Wentworth, Georgia had a Sunday morning and a Sunday evening service ... an organ and a piano ... an adult choir and a youth choir ... revival twice a year ... Wednesday night prayer service ... a pot luck supper once a month ... and a firm belief it was the gathering God most preferred.

Of course the Catholic and Methodist Churches believed the same thing.

The black Churches didn't count.

Churches were the cornerstone of growing up in a Southern factory town where we were taught to love Jesus, read the Bible, sing praises to the Lord, pray and know with absolute certainty God is watching ... everything!

God's watching more as adolescence unfolds and admiration of the opposite sex blossoms.

We grew up scared of going straight to Hell if we ever crossed that line ... though a few of us were always willing to take the chance.

Making it worse was the best looking girls in Port Wentworth were all Baptists and a few were always willing too ... and we all believed Jesus was going to come back just before that moment when we reached the Promised Land.

We grew up scared of the Lord and praying like Hell he wouldn't come back until we'd thoroughly explored the land of milk and honey.

The great St. Augustine, who much of modern Christian theology is derived from, once prayed, "Lord keep me from having sex but ... not yet."

In spite of the bad theology he developed, which many Churches are built upon today, it's hard not to appreciate the man for the honesty of this prayer.

And it was the 60's.

The Beatles are on Ed Sullivan, free love is for the taking, Playboy's in Cowart's Drug Store, America's waging unjust war and black Churches are unleashing a Civil Rights movement as leaders are assassinated like it's a third world country.

I remember praying with everything inside of me Rev. Johnson, our minister at the First Baptist Church of Port Wentworth, will shut the Hell up so I'll be home in time to watch the Beatles on Ed Sullivan.

The conflict living in the Church and the excitement of the times left me in perpetual conflict.

Like St. Augustine, after I got my fair share of sex out of the way, I gave myself to the Lord and went to Seminary and threw myself into the Church.

It was wonderful ... for a while.

We were young zealots, intoxicated on Jesus and loving the world to salvation, pure and chaste ... until one day it got old ... we grew older ... we sobered ... in spite of our efforts the world kept going to Hell ... we were no longer pure ... certainly no longer chaste.

The Church had a lot of cracks.

After trying to fool the Lord ... perhaps ourselves ... we realized we're no better than anyone else.

We drank, cussed, danced and chewed ... we lusted ... had sex outside of marriage ... ignored things going on around us ... judged with a harshness beyond belief ... believed we were better somehow than others.

It didn't crumble all at once ... no Church does ... people merely left one by one ... though the stones remained in place ... because no one was left to throw them.

It's why most Churches are empty buildings during the week ... partially filled with some holding on when Sunday rolls around ... perhaps filled on Christmas or Easter ... it became a place ... and not an life.

Today's Church is graying they say, meaning old folks go ... not old folks like me but people who are stuck in the past wanting things to be like they were ... and not like they are ... meaning they want to remain as they were ... and not become who they are.

It begs an obvious question.

If fewer and fewer attend Church, what would Jesus do?

I mean would he be graying with the rest of 'em or is he doing something else.

If you read the Gospels and keep up with such things ... I think he's doing something else.

And Jesus sat at the table to eat, and many tax collectors and sinners sat with him and his Disciples ... and a lot of other people too. And the scribes and the Pharisees saw he was eating with them asked, "Why is he eating with these people?"

Jesus answered, "Those who are okay don't need a Doctor ... I don't come to ask things of the righteous ... but of those missing the target. (Mark 2:15-17).

The first thing I get out of this is Jesus likes to eat with people with good stories to tell.

It's important to note the "Scribes and the Pharisees" were the Church people of his day and they made lots of rules and established attendance requirements, creeds, doctrines, Hymnals and a "Zero Tolerance" for sin.

Eating was also not allowed in Church.

It's still not.

Jesus doesn't seem to care for requirements such as these choosing to eat with more interesting people.

Okay, I'm not sure about Tax Collectors.

I don't know Jesus saw in them.

But the fact they have their own category that is separate sinners like me and you says something ... everybody sins but the IRS is even worse than sinning.

Still Jesus prefers these folks rather than people who wear ties on Sunday morning.

I'm also interested in who "the lot of other people"  eating are with Jesus, the Disciples, tax collectors and sinners.

Let's deduce ... it's not the Scribes and Pharisees, the Church people ... or the Disciples and followers of Jesus ... or Tax Collectors and sinners ... so who are these folks?

It can't be politicians who establish the tax rate or bankers who hold the money once obtained ... and sinners encompass most everything you can think of ... so ... I figure it's people who love to grill, bake, fry, marinate, dip and season ... in short ... "Foodies."

It's possible too that talented people were at the table ... broke musicians with nothing except their voices and whatever their fingers pluck or hit ... lonely folk who need to hang around other lonely people ... even a Silver tongue Devil or two.

So every Sunday, there's some Deviled Eggs sitting there on that Pool Table.

Then Sam Sahr show up with a heavy picnic basket ... Steve brings fresh fruit ... Ricky has doughnuts ... Frank and Karen Kelly who bring things from "Beach View" ... and who know what else?

I think this is the foundation of the Church Jesus prefers.

Food ... sinners like us ... dip shit tax collectors and those make em possible ... foodies ... musicians and smooth story tellers.

Let's be honest ... it sounds more fun than Church.

Jesus was always cool that way.

He still is.

Look around and see for yourself.

If Jesus goes to Church these days where does he go?

You just have to look for the right crowd.

He's in here somewhere.