Technical Fouls in Church

After service yesterday we went for lunch at a Middle Eastern themed restaurant. We - 3 of 4 daughters, wife, what appears to be future son-in-law and self. I like FSIL very much because he can do things - fix cars, handle tools, figure things out. Simultaneous use of hands and head , a disappearing art form novel enough to earn my appreciation is in my mind a very good thing. "It's required of an intruding new family member that a man be found useful."

The menu had an interesting and unfamiliar combination of vowels and consonants. I like that. They got me pita bread with yogurt and vegetables wrapped around a different tasting meat. It was very good and I was thinking "Little lamb, who ate thee?" but kept it to myself because it isn't that funny and I like crazy old William Blake.

The TV suspended above us was playing a pro basketball game. It was one of those nice sets with incredibly good clarity and depth of color that makes viewing enjoyable. I remember the old Philco with the fuzzy picture and the skipping. The coat hanger and aluminium foil never worked like Uncle Frank said it would. Anyway, LeBron James made it a rough game by ramming his shoulder into another guy and throwing the ball at his back. Great talent. Lousy sport.

Why wasn't he thrown out, sent to the locker room, banned for the season or life or something? Because he's basketball royalty. He's the hardwood equivalent of Simon Magus, the slick talking sorcerer who strutted Samaria working his magic and "claiming to be someone great." As a result, "they all, from the smallest to the greatest, were giving attention to him". Super talents get their way, even when it's behavior so thuggish it would earn a much deserved punch in the mouth anywhere else.

I'm a fight fan, not a basketball fan, which is probably why the ready punching reference. I really don't care what immoral millionaires do or how they play, but it made me re-visit a thought I've had before:

Why is it some people act within the church in ways they would never act anywhere else?

The pettiness, whininess, tinny complaining, lack of courtesy, manipulation, fit throwing, fakery, inattention to follow through, unwarranted posturing, disrespect, sense of entitlement, lousy participation, turf scrambling, vanity and plain old ugliness - all would never be attempted anywhere else, but cesspool just below the surface in church.

It's not everybody and it's not everywhere - I'm so fortunate to have found a genuine body of pock-marked believers that really love one another, recognize we have something rare and special and try everyday to make church a soft place for other fellow screw-ups to land.  This stuff called faith really does work. I see it all around me even if it doesn't always work in me. The best people I know are owned by Jesus Christ, but there are just enough bad actors in the Body to spoil the fun. So, (trumpet fanfare and plenty of reverb please):

"Out with you phonies and spoilers! Into the outer darkness where there shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing if teeth. No Body of Christ for you to thug your way through!"

Zero tolerance for the whole tribe. I don't care where they go, just stay away from me and mine.