Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

“The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no commandment greater than these.”

• Mark 12:29-31

I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. I wish you were either one or the other! So, because you are lukewarm—neither hot nor cold—I am about to spit you out of my mouth. You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; and white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; and salve to put on your eyes, so you can see.
Those whom I love I rebuke and discipline. So be earnest and repent. Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me.

• Revelation 3:15-20

The priest stopped in at the coffee counter and sat down on a stool. The man next to him said, “Mornin’, father.”
“Good morning.”
“New around here, father?”
“Oh, no.”
“Which is your church?”
“St. Joseph’s. Just across the street.”
“Now ain’t that a coincidence, father?” smiled the man. “St. Joseph’s is me own church!”
The priest studied the man and said, “Strange … I’ve been carryin’ on my duties at St. Joseph’s for six years now, and I’ve not seen you there.”
“Well now, father, I never said I was a fanatic!”

• Leo Rosten, Leo Rosten’s Giant Book of Laughter

I again use a bit of trepidation in using this joke and this book.  The book was published in 1985.  Leo Rosten (1908-1997) was born in Russia, but a part that is now Poland.  He was a social scientist, author, and humorist.  But he was also a Yiddish lexicographer, having been raised in a Yiddish speaking part of Russia (at the time) and moving to America at a young aged, living among other Jewish families in New York City, all speaking Yiddish.  Several of his books were about the young Yiddish man coming of age, and of course, needing a translator at times.

This joke is obviously in a denomination that calls their clergy “priest.”  The Catholics are not the only ones that do so, but changing priest to pastor and father to brother might be more inclusive.  Comedian, know your audience.

But I used the greatest commandment as an example of how a person is not following the commandments of God when they do not show up for church, not even once, in six years.

But, how many ball games did they pay tickets to go to the game?  Was it a Sunday afternoon game and they wore their replica jersey to the worship service?

I think our pastor let it slip out that he was offended by sports jerseys in the congregation on game days.  It showed where your heart and mind were and we were to love God with our heart, soul, mind, and strength.  I say that it must have leaked to those wearing the jerseys because they simply do not attend church on those Sundays.  Heaven forbid that you offend the preacher.

I have worn a variety of my 100+ ties to church after he told me that offense of his personally.  He always looks at my tie and when he sees one that “offends” him, I give my reason for wearing it, and most of the time, not all, he laughs.  My point is that a strange tie can start a conversation, and I might turn that conversation into something about Jesus.  It is quite hard to start a conversation when wearing the local sports team’s logo on your tie.  “Everybody” is wearing one of those.

But when I think of church attendance.  I think of a comic strip of the 1960s that was set in a western town.  It might have been Rick O’Shay, but don’t hold me to it.  The Wikipedia description of Rick O’Shay fits.  The marshal’s best friend is the gunslinger.  And some of the other characters sound familiar.  But in one Sunday episode, everyone is going to church except the gunslinger.  In each frame, someone is gossiping about that poor gunslinger who refuses to go to church and how his life is being ruined by his actions.  In each frame, you see the gunslinger riding his horse out of town.  No one has a kind word to say about the gunslinger.  Then in the final frame, two or three frames combined, the gunslinger is standing next to his horse on the edge of the Grand Canyon, or something much like it.  And he is praying that he can’t get much out of a sermon when everyone is staring at him and judging him.  Instead, he had to get out where he can see God and talk to God on his own terms.

So, ever since I read that comic strip in the late 60s, I have not been too interested in the numbers in the seats.  Instead, I am always concerned about what is in the heart of the person.

We need to have communion with others of like mind – all loving Jesus, but in agreement on how to accomplish that.  You cannot do that by always avoiding attendance at church, but you cannot do that by gossiping when you go to church.  But there is a few worlds of options between those two.

But let’s look at the greatest commandment just for a second.  We need to love God with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength.  Even rooting for the home team, we save some love for other things.  Even those that paint their faces save room for other things.

God says “all”.  If that is not fanatical, I don’t know how to describe it.

Jesus said that He did not like the lukewarm Christianity at the Laodicean church, but warming the water a few degrees is not the answer.  We need to crank it up until the pot boils over.  How else can we spread God’s love to others?

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.