Tales from the Trail #29: On prophets False & True …
And so it was that I left the Witham Health Services ER in good spirits that morning – my feet cared for and my body (relatively) well rested, and with only one hour to “kill” somewhere warm until I might be able to enter the hopefully-soon-to-be-opening Lebanon Christian Church. And so it was that I headed down the strip looking for said warmth – and found the same soon enough with super-nice Samantha, the attendant at the nearby Family Express gas station. She welcomed me inside that still-frigid (by my standards) morning, heard very briefly about my Walk, and then right off the bat offered me a cup of coffee on the house, along with a healthy dose of kindness – for both of which I thanked her quite profusely before heading back out into the cold …
I figured at that point that I would just make my way back to the LCC and walk around the church grounds until someone came to let me in, and yet I didn’t have to wait long at all there before “Father Sean” (the church’s very talented music director) showed up and let me inside. It was nice indeed to be able to use the restroom to take a wonderful (and at that time pretty well needed) sponge bath and then hang out in the cozily heated sanctuary until the 9am service began. And a few minutes before the same commenced, Pastor Craig Howie showed up and introduced himself to me quite warmly; emitting a sincerely caring & authentically friendly vibe as he did so. And it was during this same introduction that I, of course, told Craig what I was doing (walking for Peace) and how I was doing it (penniless and fully “on faith”), whereupon he excitedly mentioned that his sermon that day would hinge on Luke 14* (which somehow rang a familiar bell) before heading up to the front. Well, it didn’t take long thereafter for me to open up my tiny personal travel Bible to surprisingly rediscover that Luke 14 quite specifically described almost exactly what I was doing with my life in general as a Peace Pilgrim (and certainly with my current Peace Walk), so I wondered if Craig would amend his sermon accordingly that day and mention the same – however briefly – therein …
Longer story shortened, he didn’t (despite the entire message of his sermon revolving around the theme “See beyond [Yourself]”), and yet powerful connections were made by my mere presence anyway that day – not so much with business-like Sean or hyper-Paulinist Eve**, but definitely with caring congregation-member Kris*** and Pastor Craig himself. In fact, by far the most powerful moment of the entire day (and one of the more potent encounters of my entire Walk) came after the second service was over and I was saying my farewells to Craig. He was talking with a nice young couple at the time and he saw me standing nearby, called me over to them, and asked me to bear witness to my Walk. And what followed was an earnestly impassioned testimony to what can only be properly called “The Way of Christ” – namely, my religion-free message encouraging everyone to serve rather than strive to be served, to respect all (including our non-humans cousins) instead of striving to be respected, and to love all instead of trying to be loved. Aforementioned Audrey happened to be there as well, and she tried her best to get me “back on track” by talking about “the day I finally accepted Jesus Christ.” What she was not ready for, of course, was my complete devotion to the teachings of that same man, and it was beautiful to see the young couple’s jaws drop open as I explained calmly & gently that Jesus himself did not want us to strive for our own salvation (or worship him at all for that matter), but rather solely wanted us to do each & every day whatever we could to lessen the suffering of any & all nearby. I also mentioned in passing that I myself didn’t care whether Paul – or his church – or even God Himself would punish me for living the words of Christ so literally and non-dogmatically; that it would indeed be an honor to sacrifice my own eternal salvation for the betterment &/or spread of Jesus’ Way of caring Kindness & selfless Love. And it was at this moment that I glanced over to my right, and saw tears in Craig’s eyes – maybe tears of recognition and maybe tears of joy, but love-filled tears nonetheless. And it was at this moment that I knew once more that this Walk had done some real Good – that despite all its trials & failures & difficulties, it had indeed been a very real Success. And with this realization in heart & mind, I hugged them all, wished them all a Love-filled life of service & kindness, and made my way out of the church and back out onto The Road …
*“But when you are invited anywhere, be sure and sit down at the table’s lowest place … For all who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted … And when you give a luncheon or a dinner, do not merely invite your friends or your brothers and sisters or your relatives or rich neighbors, but rather whenever you give a banquet, be sure to invite the poor and the crippled and the lame … Indeed, whoever does not carry his or her cross and follow my ways cannot be my true disciple … Indeed none of you can become my disciples if you do not first give up all your possessions.” ~ Jesus Christ (Luke 14:10-33)
**Eve [not her actual name, of course] was the congregation member who had not only expressed open upset over not being allowed to give me any money for my Walk, but who also on more than one occasion that morning tried to pressure me (ever unsuccessfully, of course) into renouncing my own faith-full practice of The Way of Christ (a devout adherence to enlivening the teachings of Jesus on selfless Love & bold Service) in favor of adopting her own personal convictions in the words of Paul (which unabashedly encouraged believers to place far more weight on verbally & emotionally worshiping Jesus as the one & only Son of God than actually doing what Jesus himself quite clearly wanted everyone to do).
*** Kris was a “major player” for me all morning – being immediately & deeply moved by the Walk from the get go, then later unsuccessfully trying to give me some non-vegan food (which led to an earnestly deep conversation about veganism and how it perfectly aligns with the Way & the Truth & indeed the Life of Jesus Christ), and finally who succeeded in giving me a really nice winter coat for my ever-colder Journey.
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