THOSE WHO TAKE US IN, AND TAKE US THERE [Sun, 10-27-24]

BEYOND WINTER: Irrelevant Musings of an Old Man—THOSE WHO TAKE US IN, AND TAKE US THERE [Sun, 10-27-24]

 

Most of us who are part of a church get there because someone took us when we were young. But that doesn’t mean it was someone in our family.

Kamala Harris’ father is ethnically Afro-Jamaican. Her mother is Tamil Indian. That makes the first US female vice-president both Afro-American and Asian-American. So, naturally, she is not only Christian, but Black Baptist.

Well, not exactly “naturally.” She is married to a Jew. Her mother took her to a Hindu temple. But when she and her sister were little, a neighbor took them to a neighborhood Black Baptist church. She says that the 23^rd Avenue Church of God in Oakland was where she learned that love is a verb. Religiously, she-self identifies as a Black Baptist. Her home church now is 3^rd Baptist in San Francisco.

Oh, what those helpful neighbors do!

 

The late Nic Christoff was one of my doctoral studies classmates. He was a Missouri Synod Lutheran pastor. In case you don’t know, the Missouri Synod is German in provenance and extremely conservative. They don’t even associate with other Lutherans, yet alone the likes of Methodists or Black Baptists.

But Nic had olive skin, and big brown eyes, and jet-black hair. A very handsome man, in a gentle way. We said, “How did you get into the Missouri Synod?”

“My parents immigrated from Greece. Like all Greek immigrants, they started a restaurant. My mother died when I was little. My father had to spend all his time running the restaurant. The family next door basically raised me. They were German Lutherans. They took me to church. Missouri Synod Lutheranism is the only faith I know.”

Accidental churchmanship doesn’t always come from neighbors, though. Sometimes it’s desperation.

Anne Lamott got into a black Presbyterian church because she heard singing one “Sunday morning, coming down.” At first, she couldn’t go in. She was strung-out. She sat outside the door and listened to the singing, and to the woman who was preaching. She eventually got up the courage to go inside. It was a very small congregation. They all stared at her. Then they took her in.

 

Lamott was a relatively successful novelist. She had been a state champion tennis player when she was young. But her life had spiraled into drugs and all that goes with that. Now she is a major voice for practical Christian faith. An accidental Christian.

She says that the three essential prayers are: Help, Thanks, and Wow!

All those apply to the folks who take us to church, and to those who take us in when we’re not even sure where we are.

John Robert McFarland