“But as it is, he has appeared once for all at the end of the age

 to remove sins by the sacrifice of himself.”

–Hebrews 9:26b

One day, I was waiting in line at the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles office. This was in the era before the improvements of recent years that get people through the process quickly. Even though I had only come to renew my license, I had brought a book and was glad for it, too, when I saw the line of customers.  

A few spots ahead of me stood a woman with her three young sons.  They were running all over. She tried to keep them in check, gently correcting them and holding onto the ones she could reach. Still, it was a public place not designed for young children. After several futile attempts at behavior modification, she snapped. “If you don’t behave you will have to go to Vacation Bible School next week!”  One of the boys was unimpressed  “Yea, right Mom—good try!”    

While I was grateful she wasn’t talking about the church I was serving at the time I found myself thinking about her words again this week as Vacation Bible Schools continue occur across  our  land. Perhaps her response was simply that of an exasperated parent who was trying her best to control her offspring. Any of us with children can relate to those occasions when we have been tested and spoken words we did not really mean either and maybe that was true for her, too.

Yet if her words represented the ultimate threat, something that she thought truly should be enough to get her children to straighten up then it suggests a troubling view of the church. As perhaps for her, church had become a place of fear or control, rather than a place one can grow and have fun.  Perhaps in her estimation, church was a place of rules instead of a place of encouragement. Perhaps in her own experience, church felt like a place of judgment instead of acceptance. If that were true, threatening to take her boys to VBS was a reasonable warning.

Now clearly, I could be reading too much into her words, but wouldn’t be surprised if such experiences had not somehow shaped her threat that day. We all know no church is perfect–including the three I served–because they are always populated by fallible human beings, none more so than their pastor. If we wanted to come up with examples of un-Christian acts by churches or its people, there would be no shortage of material to recall either. Yet our imperfect nature is no excuse for ceasing to strive toward embodying what we are called to be, a place where God’s children of all ages come to learn and experience together God’s surprising and unmerited love.  Quite simply, the church and its people are to be vessels of grace.    

The Scripture verse above highlights that foundational piece of the Christian life. Prior to that line, the author had been talking about the ritual of sacrifice which Jews of the first century knew all too well. It was a system designed to restore the human relationship to God. Thus, imperfect people had to offer sacrifices repeatedly.  It changed, however, with Jesus.  “But as it is,” he wrote “Jesus has appeared once for all at the end of the age to remove sin by the sacrifice of himself.”

As his followers, it is that gift which we celebrate and are called to embody; giving thanks for the forgiveness that is ours in Christ and to extend it to others. The church is meant to be a place where such grace is received and shared, but such gifts are not to stay within the walls of any sanctuary.  Rather, the blessing of that gift is meant to be lived out in all the places we go, and the encounters that come to us, including Vacation Bible School. I sure hope that DMV mom and her children eventually found it to be so.

Perfect Lord, we are not. Help us to accept the grace through Jesus and to share it freely. Amen.