Gathering 6-14-15

One reality that describes us these days more than when we were a traditional seeker-sensitive parish priest-led Christendom church is that we devote ourselves to the service and care of Jesus in the form of "the least of these."

One of the regular participants in our gatherings is 70ish year old man, call him Benny, who is extremely extroverted and whose love language is acts of service. He is challenged and it is sometimes a blessing and sometimes a challenge to walk with him in community.

One of the life skills Benny has not mastered is, um, to put it delicately, knowing the proper amount of toilet paper to use. As a result, our toilet backs up on a regular basis during our Sunday gathering, so often, in fact, that we have begun to use his name as a verb meaning to clog the toilet as in, "Hey hon, don't use the front bathroom now. The I bennied the potty."

Well, Benny did his finest work this morning as soon as he arrived and sheepishly told us about the problem even before the gathering began. I found the plunger and took on the task of de-bennying the bathroom we use for gathering.  And, believe me, it was a herculean task. I worked the plunger for about fifteen minutes without success while others began singing. Evie, the usual song leader stopped the singing to take a shot at fixing the problem for a few minutes and turned the task back to me and I continued without success until I had been at it for about a half hour while everyone else was holding it.

During that time, I continued to remind myself that Jesus went to the cross for me and that manning the plunger in a meeting of brothers and sisters was a small inconvenience compared the act of love and mercy that purchased my salvation.

Then after about a half hour, I am genuinely embarrassed to admit, it occurred to me that I had not prayed about the bennied potty. I, then, chided myself for my lack of reliance on the Lord and then questioned whether my faith was childlike and pure enough to believe that God would hear my prayer about the clogged toilet. I settled those things and then prayed that the Father would unclog the toilet...

...About three plunges later I heard the blessed sound of the suction that meant all was clear!

Later on, I confessed the slow pace of my impulse to rely on the Lord and celebrated His care for us in the most simple of problems.

Ah...God is good. ALL the time.

Such is life in intimate community in our simple house gathering.

I would not trade it for the slickest mega church.