For some people, going to church is going home. In a very profound sense, I would say the same thing. Home is where Christ is.
Frederick Buechner
Saturday afternoon I walked down to the church to take a few photographs.
“But you already have a lot of wonderful photos of our church…” Rebekah said.
Well, yes. But there is something about immediacy, about today, about photographing a story right now rather than having to label all my images – no matter how good – “file photo.”
I took the new shots because I wanted to write another Sunday morning “Great Reasons to go to Church” column, and this time the central idea spoke to me directly from one of the images. I have taken better photographs of the church, but I don’t think I have shared a better idea.
Anyway, right there, walking south on Saint Patrick Street away from our house, I noted how the corner stop-sign covers the front entry (visually) to Howard Memorial. And it begs the question, “Why?”
Why stop? Why not walk on by? Why even bother? Why church?
Just Stop!
I can imagine Jesus stepping out from behind something – maybe one of our bushes – holding his hand out, palm forward like Diana Ross and the Supremes, making eye contact with whoever is cruising down Saint Patrick or Saint James, and saying “Stop! Stop in the name of Love.”
The implications give me chills.
Stop! Just stop in your tracks. Stop walking. Stop paying attention to those other things that have been on your mind. Stop being distracted. Stop focusing on everything else and not what’s important.
Just stop.
Stop and think about what Jesus means when he challenges us to “Stop in the name of love.” Because for Jesus love was – love is – the prime motivating force that led him to take all the fullness of God and distill everything about it into the person and the presence of a small, helpless, baby.
For the entire fullness of God’s nature dwells bodily in Christ,
Colossians 2:9
In the name of love!
Love is the lens, the filter through which Jesus pours every moment. Love defined his earthly life and his love was so complete, so captivating, so full with goodness that when it bumped up against the powers of this world they crucified him. When what is corrupt is faced with and confronted by such goodness, such purity, what happened to Jesus was/is inevitable.
This love, though, like the splitting of an atom, released such power – such a cosmic explosion of grace and mercy and goodness and light – that even death, the most feared force in the Universe, is extinguished in the wash, the torrent, the flood, the pure energy – the flow – of Jesus.
That is what Jesus means by, “Stop in the name of love!”
Jesus means each one of us to stop, to take a look around and to take stock of everything. And then he wants us – he wants you – to walk into the sanctuary, take a seat, pray and open your heart to the presence, the fullness, the forgiveness and the promise that belongs to each one of us.
Come to church. Come to Jesus. Come home. – DEREK