Church: A Messy Complication

This is our church this morning, if I’m categorizing anything as church. It’s reading Philippians 1 out-loud, talking, praying, and thanking God for one another. It’s sitting and eating crepes, drinking coffee, enjoying family time.

Church is a messy complication. I couldn’t get myself out of the house to go to church this morning. I wanted to, but the title of the sermon series was something about “getting rid of distractions.” My kids slept in. I couldn’t think of where we would show up and belong. I didn’t want to try to squeeze us into a community with doors regulating participants through micro-aggressions and ignorance. I am tired.

So, to be present, we did something else.

Church is a messy complication.

It is weaved into the fabric of harm and hurt and ignorance I’ve been asked to believe and have finally said, “No to that HELL!” That doesn’t mean you won’t see me on a Sunday morning, praising, listening, praying. You definitely will. You’ll see my children, too. And, sometimes my husband. If you knew us a little better than most, you would also see us debriefing afterwards, unpacking the sermon, allowing everything our family is created to be to live inside of the gospel, the good news. It is good news – not just to some people, but to this multi-ethnic, multi-racial family making sense of church in rural America. 

I say “Yes” to love, relationships, honor, trust, delight, faith, and hope. 

Philippians 1:29-30 “29 For you have been given not only the privilege of trusting in Christ but also the privilege of suffering for him. 30 We are in this struggle together. You have seen my struggle in the past, and you know that I am still in the midst of it.”

#sundaythoughts #sunday #philippians #paul #supersixcastillejos #citizensofheaven #latina #latino #latinx