Some time ago, during our ongoing quest to find a church we could both agree on, UberGeek and I decided to try a church not too far from our house. We got dressed, packed up the kids and headed out. Before long we were pulling into the parking lot. We noticed that many of the church members were already heading into the building. We also noticed that we appeared to be missing something that all of them had in hand, a Bible. Not just any Bible though, not a plain, nondescript Bible that could be any book, but a blinged out super Bible. Every member had a Bible with a super fancy hand made Bible cover. The Bibles were big too, big, ruffled, some sparkled, glittered, all colors but not all sizes, they seemed to only come in one size, XL. In our house, the Bible is scuffed, shoved from bookcase, to bedside table, to floor to chair. It is not in a beautiful cover and it is definitely not fancy. Some years it gets read pretty frequently, other years not often at all. The children's Bible is the only one you can depend on always being read on a very regular basis. At least we all get a daily Bible story that way, even if it is Jonah and the Big Fish over and over. UberGeek spotted the Bible covers and he gave me "the look" that is his pleading look. The one that means, I think this church may also be the kind that would go to a foreign country and teach them to read but only if it was from the Bible.
UberGeek loves God and follows Jesus' teachings, it's some "Christians" he can't stand. The stone throwers and neighbor judgers drive him bonkers. People who will complain openly about gay people (or as they call it the gay lifestyle) but happily sit next to a divorced person even though Jesus never specifically addressed homosexuality but said plenty about divorce and remarriage. In our minds it's best to sit next to whoever shows up and worry about our own sins, we've got plenty, if you need to borrow some, let us know. We're not sure the whole "love thy neighbor" thing had exceptions so for us it means love your poor neighbor, love your drug addicted neighbor, love your gay neighbor, love your conservative neighbor, love your liberal neighbor, love your immigrant neighbor, you get the drift.
Although he enjoys contemporary music in his Sunday services, if there is a Jesus rock band and anyone is wearing heavy eye shadow, closing their eyes and swaying, UberGeek cannot contain himself and begins to suppress bubbling laughter. If we enter a church and there are leather couches, marble floors and crystal chandeliers everywhere we are both turned off. How much of that money could have been given to the poor we wonder? What is the mission of the church if the contents of the building are so important? It's not that I don't believe that people in those churches don't do good things, I'm sure they do. I do think a church should be safe, comfortable and attractive, but there is no need for luxury. I prefer a little edge of shabbiness to my churches, it reminds me of my childhood parish.
That day UberGeek's eyes continued to widen as giant Bible cover after Bible cover marched toward the church building. Finally he turned to me, "Could we please just go get breakfast and say our prayers together?" "There is no way I'm ever getting a Bible cover like that." I agreed, I prefer my Bible understated as well.
