I Ain't Going Over There. God Made Me Show Up Anyway.

Nearly a year ago, I left the church for a number of reasons not limited to the terms in the letter my former pastor received detailing the circumstances leading to my season's end. If you really want to know, check the records. For everyone else, time was up thus setting up the next eleven months of spiritual free agency. When asked about what happened, I tried to deflect and redirect the question as much as possible as to prevent getting angry all over again. I had dedicated nine years to a neighborhood who didn't know me from the man on the moon to serving this congregation for four years in the diaconate as faithfully as a man working the graveyard shift loopy schedule and all was physically able to show up every other Sunday morning for 11 am service.

From the earliest part of free agency: Thanks to Pastor Kevin Cunningham and the New Jerusalem MBC for such a welcoming spirit 

Remember in the Book of Jonah where our protagonist refused to go to Nineveh? Unlike him, I didn't get whooped around or swallowed by a whale; consequently, my family's departure made corporate worship a tougher pill to ingest at the moment and location. To me, it was within my right to be a proverbial turd in the punchbowl by slandering the leadership team namely the executive committee and "angel of this house" on the way out since their compasses were broken not irretrievably rather needed to be recalibrated but thankfully cooler heads (and the luxury of time) prevailed.

We love because God loved us first.

1 John 4:19

We all need this reminder.

Now back to the Book of Jonah. 

After he hopped the ship from Joppa for Spain to avoid Nineveh, the sea raged all about and it scared the sailors to the point they prayed to their gods for their own safety...until it was discovered - and Jonah admitted that he was the cause of this severe storm (Jonah 1:9-12). The sailors continued to row their way back ashore yet the storm worsened. With one option remaining, they did what some consider the unimaginable and threw Jonah off the ship and as a result, the sea calmed down. Although no additional information is provided about the crew, they did indeed pray to God and offer all sorts of promises (v. 16). Then we found out about God sending a whale to swallow Jonah in the following verse. One lesson that is often missed in Chapter 1 is that when trouble arises in the church, we tend to look at everything but the source of the issue until it is almost too late and the collective soul of the group finds itself at a crossroads of losing its very identity to maintain comfort, power, etc. 

I always told members that if I am the problem, just go ahead and get me on down the road. I'd rather be part of the solution and as remaining strong in the faith and daily walk in the face of hot mess becoming more tenuous fraught with members who donned rose-colored glasses, I had to do something.

Honestly, I'd prefer earthly discomfort than to take the easy road to hell. Reread what I just said.

So why am I back?

God isn't done with Deacon Ced yet. 

Catching up with my bro Jack and Greater Galilee BC. I need to take pictures in different shirts 

John 9:37 serves as my own reminder that there is still a whole lot of work in the field and although the laborers are few, I best get after it as long as I am reasonably able to DO what thus saith the Lord. It means DO a whole lot more than just show up with a large check to lord (note the lowercase l) over the leadership as a way to hold sway and undue influence. Certainly I understand fully that we cannot work our way into heaven because doing so minimizes the mystery of the gospel held and puts the entire concept of faith in question.

He said to his disciples, “A large crop is in the fields, but there are only a few workers.

Matthew 9:37

Allow me to revert to Jonah avoiding Nineveh like the plague once again - or like Black folks staying out of Harrison or Cabot.

Once Jonah prays his prayer of desperation, the whale spits him out and as a result, that second chance is grace embodied. Since he didn't want to be there, God took him down through there and brought him out back to where he was supposed to be in the first place: Nineveh. In Chapter 3 he goes as commanded to the large city [population approx. 120K, about the size of Charleston, SC] sharing his message on foot which takes him three days to cross one side to the other side. At the end of the first day, Jonah declared that the city would be destroyed in forty days as a result of their sinfulness. 

Their response? See below.

After walking for a day, Jonah warned the people, “Forty days from now, Nineveh will be destroyed!” They believed God's message and set a time when they would go without eating to show their sorrow. Then everyone in the city, no matter who they were, dressed in sackcloth. When the king of Nineveh heard what was happening, he also dressed in sackcloth; he left the royal palace and sat in dust. Then he and his officials sent out an order for everyone in the city to obey. It said: None of you or your animals may eat or drink a thing. Each of you must wear sackcloth, and you must even put sackcloth on your animals. You must also pray to the Lord God with all your heart and stop being sinful and cruel. Maybe God will change his mind and have mercy on us, so we won't be destroyed. When God saw that the people had stopped doing evil things, he had pity and did not destroy them as he had planned.

Jonah 3:4‭-‬10

The citizens immediately turned away from their sinful ways, fasted for an unspecified period, dressed in sackcloth, and prayed to be spared. In verse 10, we learn that God saved them and did not destroy the city after all.

Was everyone pleased? No. 

Can't keep everyone happy all the time, y'know.

Jonah began throwing a hissy fit in Chapter 4 instead of being overjoyed about the 120K souls saved from a certain damnation. He walked out of the city through the east gate and made himself a shelter just to see what was going to happen to the people of Nineveh. The Lord made a vine for Jonah's comfort which greatly pleased him but the next day, a worm began to eat the leaves drying it out. Later that afternoon, the sun came out and beat him down further enraging the onetime escape artist until he shouted "I wish I was dead!" The Lord knew Jonah was more upset about the vine withering away than the 120K saved souls who previously did not know right from wrong (or even cared). As a result, God indicts Jonah's indifference in verse 11 citing that he should show equal  compassion over a big city as a little vine, here for a season and gone the next. 

How does this apply to my journey? 

I gave my nephew communion the last time I went home to Greater Friendship MBC. For some reason, this shade of blue has always looked good on me 

I specifically remember stating I wasn't setting foot off in that building again until some significant housecleaning happened. When I said housecleaning, I meant these few words: EVERYONE GOT TO GO. My spirit could no longer allow for me to be the cover for all of the baloney and simultaneously bear the stresses and strains alone while the remaining folks either had fun watching the foundation crack or blindly followed the Pied Piper to a wilderness they might not have been able to return home from. Together, they were too busy playing church without trying to be the Church. 

Here are the two I have to really do this godly walk for - and at Mount Zion MBC 

It took returning for Communion Sunday a few months ago as a visitor to realize this is where we belong as a family. With some trepidation and because I had some more churches to visit (see Spiritual Free Agency), I wasn't exactly raring to jump back into the fold with both feet running like Usain Bolt. In addition, I had used the past eleven months to study even deeper for myself and began to question three-day theology plus other traditions unmentioned in the Bible (Sidebar: I know Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose three days later yet I have an issue when pastors lazily specify Friday as His death and Resurrection two days later on Sunday.) In keeping with relevant teaching, simply state on the first day He died, and on the third day, He got up with all power in His hands. By repeatedly stating this bit of misinformation, preachers continue this lazy at best study destined to infantize Bible study attendants rather than get down into the roots of theology and question some of the things we were always told - or conveniently skipped over.

In this adventure, I'm praying for growth across the board plus a better understanding of what lies in His word. Though the mystery of faith is something that should elude all of us - and that we treat it as such (1 Timothy 3:9), help us to comprehend that faith in God and the promise of eternity are both intertwined with our ordered daily steps and continued studies. Also, I am petitioning for the courage to stand on the Word not only in knowing but also doing and applying in situations that like Jonah I could run away from. 

Thanks for welcoming us back. 

Now let's go to work.