Tuesday, March 4, 2008

Dear God,

Two people in a room together discovering who they really are. Giving voice to the past, to the truth that sets people free.

Our church has become an open door to the truth. Here people find themselves. Wandering alone for a long time, they have settled here living with the truth that sets people free. Drawn by a force they never saw nor heard, they walked in. In time the truth was revealed. In fact they revealed it themselves because they could. You can tell the truth at home where the truth is revered as a way to set people free.

Perhaps it was because this church has become home to both. They found both their mother and father here, their sisters and brothers. Their family is here, welcoming, loving, forgiving, telling the truth with them, celebrating the truth that sets people free.

The church. Home to God. The beloved community of Jesus. The church where Jesus reveals the truth to willing participants. Each Sunday, sometimes through the week, people drop the facade of a person who once lived in their body. They are releasing, letting go, surrendering the past. They sort through the new creation theory, then stand in line to try on the new clothes waiting for them at the altar.

Hope awaits them as they do the work, the hard work of truth telling, of exchanging old clothes for new, of living a new life. We have this hope in great commodity. Every time someone takes some out, more seems to appear. Hope multiplying. Faith expanding beyond our ability to take it all in.

The truth that sets people free. We have it right here.

The truth,
"tell me the stories
of Jesus,
I want to hear."
That sets people free,
"things I would
ask him
to tell me
if he were near."
The truth,
the honest-to-God
truth that
is setting
people free.
No surprise
here at your home.
We're freeing people,
liberating them,
setting them
on a hill
to run, sing, and play.
New clothes
for new activities.
The Spirit
at work...
again.

Loving you for your wondrous ways, Andrea