The Margins

Dave Gibbons preached tonight at the opening worship service for the Annual Meeting of the Covenant. At one point he referenced the commands to love the Lord with all your heart and to love your neighbor as yourself and he highlighted the provocative way Jesus answered the question of “who is my neighbor”. And as he spoke about the church’s call to love those on the fringes, to love those who are not like us, he confessed the easy inclination toward homogeneity; the default setting of like attracting like. And he concluded: “We in the church have pimped the second commandment.”

Driving home the other day, I passed by the fire station while a crew of firefighters were in some form of training involving a bunch of wrecked cars. It was kind of a spectacle and I shared about it with my kids when we drove past the location later that same day. I pointed out the crushed cars and told the kids that the firefighters train to be able to help rescue people in the case of a car accident.

“Mommy was once in a very bad accident where my car got crushed like that,” I told them soberly. “Only I was able to crawl out, and so was my best friend. We didn’t need to be rescued.”

And I added: “God really protected us and saved us that day.”

There was a moment of silence in the back seat before Mercy spoke: “Mommy, I know why God saved you.”

Mercy has had such a sensitivity of late to my role as pastor that I fully expected her response to be something about serving others or teaching people about Jesus.

“Why, Mercy?” I asked.

“Because you were going to have the most wonderful kids.”

I snuck Doug away to the Salish Lodge for our anniversary thanks to parents and friends willing to care for the little ones. It was a total splurge and worth every penny.