“Love the Lord with all of your heart, all of your mind, and with all of your soul. And the second great commandment is to love your neighbor as yourself. On these to commandments hang all of the laws of the prophets.” – Jesus Christ
Growing up I really had no interest in the politics of the church, for I was young and things like that never really interested me. Yeah I went to church each and every Sunday, and my parents were and still are involved in different aspects of the church outside of just going to service, and even though I was a acolyte, sang in the choir, and did other things, the politics of the church was something that never really interested me.
I was living in Philadelphia at the time when women were first officially ordained, and I remember thinking to myself that it was nice, but what had taken the Episcopal Church so long in having that, for I had seen it in other Christian communities in the Black community. Was the Episcopal church really that far behind the times? Then later the that diocese said that it was ok to have females as acolytes. At the time that the congregation I was in decided to have it's first female acolyte, I was the senior acolyte, and they were very nervous about approaching me to inform me. I had the power to make someone a good or bad acolyte, for no other acolyte had the same skill set that I had. People loved when my best friend and I served, for they knew that they were going to see it done as though it has a super high mass with a show. When they finally told me what they decided that they wanted to do, they were very surprised when I said that I thought that it would be great. Unlike others that I trained, she was trained to hold up the tradition that my friend and I had begun.
When I moved to the diocese that I am in now, I figured that I would no longer have to serve as an acolyte, but when those at the congregation that I was in say how I would shake my head at the way that the acolytes did things, to told me that if I felt that I could do better to get up their one Sunday and show them how it was suppose to be done. I really didn't want to do it, but the next Sunday I put vestments on and showed them how it should be done. I was immediately made head acolyte.
Over time I became more and more involved with that congregation, and was even thinking about becoming a Deacon, but then something happened that changed my mind. I was elected to be one of our Deanery representatives, and I because to see the politics that goes on within the larger church organization. It made me realize that the what I had been thinking was just purely about Christianity wasn't so. Yes, for week after week, year after year, I had been going into the buildings and saying the words that were put into front of me, but that isn't what made me a Christian.
Christianity isn't about the buildings and organizational structures, but what is in somebody's heart. We hear and say the words. We read our Bibles and learn each and every verse, but does that make one a Christian? Currently several church organizations are going through rough times with infighting about who can and cannot do what, and what the Bible says, but Jesus made the whole thing so simple for us to understand.
We have gotten so caught up in other matters, that we are making things more difficult than they really should be. We find it so easy to tell each other that we love one another, but when was the last time that you just simply said “God I love You!”? Think about it. I'm not talking about prayers and other such stuff, but just simply said to the Holy Trinity that you loved him?
I want you to get up right now, go outside and make a 360 degree turn and say “God I love you.” I don't care if someone else is out there and may see you, and think that you are nuts. From your heart let God know how you feel.
Go Ahead, I will wait.
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Now didn't that feel good?