ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
September 25, 2026
Last night, I was driving home from the church around 8:30 p.m., and in my rearview mirror, I could see a pickup truck coming up quickly. As you approach Kuykendahl Road going east, it goes from two lanes to three. The truck passed me on the left, and then immediately cut in front of me, crossing all the lanes of traffic to pull into the parking lot and into a parking spot immediately in front of Subway. As I stopped at the light, I looked over my shoulder to see him hop out of the truck and into the restaurant. I guess there are times when someone needs a sub sandwich really badly. It got me to thinking that I’ve never seen anyone turn into the church with such passion, though maybe that’s not necessarily a bad thing. It’s good to have passion, but let’s not cut off others on our way to church. It did remind me of a conference I attended at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago years ago. One of the speakers, a leader from the local church, talked about a program they had started a few years earlier, a wonderful Thanksgiving Dinner for the community. Thousands would be served. She then showed us a picture on the screen of hundreds of people lined up outside the church, stretching into the parking lot. I, along with everyone else, assumed that these were people waiting in line for a Thanksgiving meal. Instead, it was a picture six weeks before Thanksgiving, and these were church members who showed up early on Sunday morning, before the church building was even unlocked, to volunteer for the Thanksgiving Dinner. Maybe they were not cutting off people on their way to sign up, but to line up before the building even opens on a Sunday morning says something about the passion of those people to share God’s love.
When so many things are shouting loudly for my attention, give me ears to hear your voice, Holy God. I desire passion about the things that Jesus was passionate about, including loving my neighbor in real and tangible ways. Amen.
