One of the oddities of being me is some of the unusual places I end up in my misadventures. In today's version I ended up in a Black Christian Church in a poor area of NYC.
I want to point to the BS that commies talk about Churches. If the Church is Black and in a poor locale it is a vital community resource. If the same service is held in a white church they are hateful
evangelicals. If Indians have this service it is cultural genocide.
Christ is the great leveler of humanity. King and peon are held to the same rules. The service is a very interactive experience set to music with easy to remember lyrics. The entire service isl about accepting Jesus as the savior and redemption.
In this case a man was brutally murdered. In my case I am fortunate in that my simplicity does not bring me to the question of why? I understand humanity in different terms than most and why is connected to the selfish part of what we are as humans. We are capable of great evil and for me this is a given. The question of why requires faith in things we can not add or subtract like character, the heart and soul. I do not relate well to those things that can not be placed on a ledger sheet. However, I was struck by the focus on hope in spite of the senselessness of the depraved action. The killer was forgiven at the service, but the community and family stressed the open question of why? Even if the killer were to step forward and explain what happened on a larger scale the question of why can not be answered at our level.
The service ended with hope for the family and the community. Its faith and devotion was severely tested by an act of evil. Yet Christ is the enemy of tyrants and thugs in that hope and equality is possible under the eyes of the God unites those in spite of ourselves or our stupidity.
Maybe, it is best that the truth in certain cases of pointless crimes like this remain unknown because we never can answer why in the same way we can not measure a soul.
The wonder of the service at the community level is that hope, redemption and unity remain possible. Maybe I am too cynical to think that some are worthy, but I am glad to be the exception.
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3 comments:
Some years ago, one of our elderly friends committed suicide. He lived in subsidized housing near a black church. The church opened its doors and held a memorial service for our friend.
Talk about a beautiful service! Your description of such services in black churches -- and some white ones, too -- are as you described.
Yes, we mourned. But we celebrated too.
I've never been to a more moving memorial service.
A Tale of 2 Services.
When my husband died, a good friend of his died shortly after. I, and my son, went to the funeral of the friend the day before the memorial service for my late.
It was a funeral, hopeful, but a sea of black. I stood and spoke about how wonderfully this lady had included ml in family celebrations, since his had basically disowned him. But it was somewhat depressing.
The next day was my late's memorial service. Instead of all black, I wore a bright red sweater(his favorite color), another friend came with her 2 daughters, she wore a red suit.
I had a collage of the children's favorite pictures of them and their Dad, I had wedding albums and other pictures showing us as a family. The music was uplifting and hopefilled, and the church threw a lunch afterwards.
BTW-I gave the pastor one of ml's Rush Limbaugh ties to wear, lol!
Yes, there was sadness, but as you said, it was tempered with remembrance, hope and laughter too.
Good morning, G*D bless and Maranatha!
tmw
BTW-No mimes! ;-}
Beak...I am SO not an evangelist, TRUST ME.........but I've gotta say Jesus wants you, babe.
Love, Cher
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