Photo by Katie Lips
I wrote recently about spending a Sunday morning on the beach rather than in a church. Clearly I successfully dealt with most of my related guilt, because then I went and skipped church again the very next Sunday morning, which was spent eating pancakes and sausage with friends around a picnic table at a campground.
The early summer getaways were fun, but I have to admit, skipping two Sundays in a row makes me feel a bit untethered. Luckily, I was able to do some Wednesday night church to help me reconnect and refocus. We met in Jeff and Tisa’s basement. To scrape off wallpaper in a spare bedroom. It certainly wasn’t the most traditional way to do church, but it did the trick.
Church minus the special building
First we gathered and broke bread together. Actually it was pizza, and there weren’t enough seats for all 12 of us to even sit down at the table together. But we were all fed and nourished, and there’s something really powerful about that. (There’s also something powerful about being bribed with pizza when there’s physical labor to be done, but that’s sort of off-topic.)
Then we pointed our nourished selves toward the basement, where we directed our combined our knowledge and muscle toward a single, shared goal: The Ugly Wallpaper Must Go.
As we worked, we shared what’s been going on in our lives. Some of what was shared was serious, like a prayer request for relatives with health problems. But mostly it was silly—expressions of joy and laughter, joking and teasing and reveling in the safe place we’ve created together. We even did some singing—not hymns or worship songs, but things like “Pump Up the Volume” (it’s a long story).
Renovate, restore, rebuild, refresh
Before long, our work was done. The walls were clean and refreshed; so were we.
Why would some wallpaper scraping do that? I suspect it has something to do with that whole idea of Jesus being with us whenever two or more of us are gathered in his name (Matthew 18:20). We love each other and help each other, in spite of our faults and selfish tendencies, because of Jesus. So he was definitely there.
He was there in the midst of the pizza eating and wall scraping, the silly chatter and the more serious conversation. Just as he’s on the beautiful beach, he’s in the rough basement with a bunch of believers who come together to tackle a messy, painstaking job, inch by inch scraping away what is no longer wanted.
Our work was a prayer, the basement a sanctuary.
“…the prayer of the Christian reaches beyond its set time and extends into the heart of his (and her) work. It includes the whole day, and in doing so, it does not hinder the work; it promotes it, affirms it, and lends it meaning and joy. Thus, every word, every work, every labor of the Christian becomes a prayer.“
~ from Life Together by Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1954)
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