"She Ain't Nevah Left the Church!"
image: “Salão da Aicha” by Rev. Alex da Silva Souto, Chimoio, Moçambique.
It always strikes me as strange whenever people ask me whether I miss the church when they find out I’m no longer a local church pastor.
My response is always similar to what Aretha Franklin’s father told people who suggested she had somehow gone astray by singing secular music.
“Aretha is just a stone cold singah!
And if you really wanna know the truth, she ain’t nevah left the church!”
As I read all these comments about 45s “order” regarding the church, the truth is he is not at all alone with his faulty perspective of just what the Church is and for whom She exists.
He really is not the first person to mis-spirit Her.
Her body is spiritual and Her adherents are human.
They gather in places made by human hands made sacred by God’s good pleasure.
Thankfully most of you know that “where two or three are gathered in His name” there She will be.
And when you know that, you also know that She is always open and She is never broke.
She shows up when and where you least expect Her.
The absence of institutionally approved prayer does not mean that She is not present and that prayer is not happening.
Her rites are not diminished even when temporarily suspended.
Because She will prevail, so too shall these rites.
And just so you know, human orders do not give her essentialness nor have they ever despite the many times in history when some felt Her demise was soon at hand.
All this because She shall exist forever though the houses may fade away.
And neither the gates of hell nor the lies of Trump shall prevail.