A Good Friday Indeed
I’ve never been much for Church tradition.
In fact, my upbringing in a home church and then a larger body of Christ with a seeker friendly environment, left me fairly impoverished when it came to Church tradition of any kind.
For me, church was big, rich in worship, community and relationship. All such good and beautiful necessities. Yet, some pieces of the body of Christ were missing. Pieces I wouldn’t notice I needed until I was in my thirties and became a missionary with Cup of Cold Water Ministries.
It was at that time when the ecumenical doors seemed to fly wide open.
And I walked through.
Because CCWM is an inter-denominational missions sending organization we were invited to speak at a plethora of churches while raising support for our mission in Mongolia.
The first invitation to share our missions story came from Helmar Lutheran Church. Until then, my only brush with Lutheran Churches was my childhood summer highlight..VBS. As a child, I learned quickly that Lutherans did VBS best. Oh the crafts, the songs, the costumes! Of course this was one Lutheran Church, but in my simple reasoning it must be all.
My husband, Troy and I were struck speechless on the drive home from Helmar that night. What we had experienced was so tender. The church had embraced us as if we were their own. They listened to our story. They laughed with us, encouraged, asked good questions and in the end one farmer in the congregation took off his hat and passed it around the group filling it with our first ever donation to Mongolia outside of our home church. There was a gifted seven hundred dollars in that hat, and they handed it to us with a smile and a surrounding prayer to GO!
We had not expected that. Whatever box we had put the Lutherans in they had just broken out of it.
“Maybe we’re Lutheran” my husband Troy broke the ice on the drive home. We laughed at that. He was right. So many things had attracted us within those church walls. They were rich in tradition, steeped in scripture, and warm, receiving, open to the possibility that God could send non-Lutherans to the field. It surprised and delighted my spirit and began to break down the myths I had about “other churches.”
Helmar would stand with us in Mongolia, monthly supporting us for eight years. Even though we never did become our secret denomination.
This repeated itself in one version after another as we visited Baptist, Methodist, Church of Christ and so on. Many times we left the new church thinking, “ Maybe we’re….”
On the field we were supported by all. An eclectic body unified to send two people to Mongolia. It still makes my heart skip a beat when I get to thinking on it. How we were sent by the Church. The big ‘C’ church. I’ll forever be grateful for what that taught me about Jesus.
I learned Jesus isn’t Charismatic, or Lutheran, or Baptist or Methodist, or a home church. He is all of it.
Back in the USA, I have had the opportunity to continue the ecumenical life. My husband became a Baptist pastor — a big surprise to us and a whole other story. He also stepped up to be the president of our community ministerial association, a collection of churches gathering each month to work as a team. This is mostly behind the scenes but occasionally comes out in view of the community. My favorite display of the Church is on Good Friday, where we join together to do a cross walk.
Because of my lack of Church tradition I had never heard of a cross walk beyond the white paint in the road allowing you to get to the other side safely. I learned that in Church tradition a cross walk had a whole new meaning. It was something many churches take part in on Good Friday, essentially following the cross through the city streets in remembrance of what Jesus did for us all those Friday’s ago.
In our community we gather all of the churches and we follow the cross together, held on the back of one man as he walks from church to church. We file inside each church building for a short song, communion, or bible reading related to the death and resurrection of Jesus. After all Jesus is collectively our reason.
Jesus.
That, we have in common. And that is what we focus on.
It’s become a Church tradition for me. One of my first, indeed my favorite.
Each Good Friday as I follow Jesus along with the growing line of people from various denominations down the winding streets of my town and into the churches its difficult to hold back the emotions.
What I see is Jesus going into the various churches reminding us that He is the common bond, the common thread that pulls us together.
As the old hymn says, ‘All other ground is sinking sand.’
It’s a striking display of unity and understanding that although we may differ on so many levels and be well equipped to debate one another on so many theological understandings, we are all together ONE when it comes to Jesus. For the night of Good Friday we agree to endure the differences we have in pews or chairs, organ or guitar, standing communion or sitting…stained glass or modern shiplap…hymns or Bethel ballads, state of the art screens or hymnals because in the end it doesn’t really matter.
In our end, we’ll be together just like this. In one place, all of us who take up our cross and follow Jesus.
Because of Good Friday, the real and sorrowful Good Friday where Jesus breathed his last breath before death crying out, “It is finished.”, we get to do this thing called Church. We’re included in the list of the rescued. And that makes a hard painful Friday, oh so good.
“Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.”
QUESTIONS TO DEEPEN THE CONVERSATION:
What are some church traditions that you find valuable?
What is one thing you can celebrate about a neighboring church?
What is one thing you can celebrate about your church?
