ITLOTC
(In The Life Of The Church)
Pentecost
Kingdom Rights
“You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.”
-Romans 6:18
My favorite book of all time is The Great Divorce. It has done more to shape my theology than any other book I read. It set me on the trajectory that made me theologically curious. All discovery on my journey has been subsequent to what I first wondered about after finishing that book. If you’ve never read it, it’s about ghosts from hell that visit heaven and the incompatibility of the two. It’s much more than that, but if you really care, you can research it.
I’d like to tell you about one fellow from the book who I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. A ghost from hell. He’s nameless, as almost all the ghosts are, but he can be identified by his insistence. The word “rights” occurs nine times in The Great Divorce. Seven of those occur in a dialogue with a solid man (heavenly person). Six of the seven in that dialogue are from the ghost who insists on having his rights. That’s his insistence … his main interest. His rights. After about the third time of insisting that all he wants are his rights, the solid man says this: “Oh no. It's not so bad as that. I haven't got my rights, or I should not be here. You will not get yours either. You'll get something far better. Never fear.” If you’d like to read more on the exchange you can find it near the beginning of chapter 4.
A number of years ago, UBC hosted the Mi Casa Olympics. It was an all day extravaganza of fierce competition in events like Hipster Jousting and the Dizzy Bat Challenge and of course the day was capped off by with a game of Bible trivia. Every team came up with a uniform clothing piece. For most teams that was a shirt. My mi casa was the Carnadians. There was one mi casa whose host family had a child with a misshapen head. This is not uncommon in toddlers. The solution is a specially designed helmet that corrects the bone plate growth in the skull over time. Children that wear these get all sorts of creative designs on them. They can be a fashion piece. One particular family I know had their son’s turned into a Green Bay Packer helmet. Back to the mi casa olympics. The mi casa in question decided that their unifying clothing piece would be misshapen head helmets. It was a simple act of solidarity that I found moving.
It reminded me of a Canadian tire commercial I saw a few years ago. Some boys are playing basketball. Basketball roles away. Another boy in a wheelchair sees it. Boy retrieving ball sees boy in wheelchair looking longingly at the basketball game. Then a basketball appears on the porch of the boy in a wheelchair. Curiosity wins the day. He takes the ball back to the basketball hoop only to discover that everyone has voluntarily confined themselves to some kind of wheeled transport … a wagon, a tricycle, an office chair. then the original basketball boy issues an invitation, “come on.”
There a story about this in Paul’s letter to the Corinthians. It’s about meat eating. The gentiles eat market meat that has been offered to the gods as a sacrifice. The Jews think the meat is tainted with demons. Paul doesn't think the meat is tainted, but asks the more woke Gentile Christians to abstain from eating meat for the sake of the Jewish Christians.
COVID has required us to surrender some of our rights. Knowing which rights to fight for and when is not an invaluable task. Some people have made great sacrifices in the name of fighting for people’s rights. But I’ll tell you about one objection that doesn’t make any sense to me. It’s not convenient for me. I do believe in the science of wearing masks. I could be wrong, but I believe in it. But it strikes me that in Christian faith there is a mode of being that supercedes what scientifically suitable for me to do, and that is what love compels me to do.
Let me step back from mask wearing, even though I feel strongly about that and speak more generally about the issue of insisting on our rights. We should all be afforded civil rights, but the insistence on not doing something merely because it’s a violation of your rights might be one of the most anti-Christian postures to take. The surrendering of comfort for the sake of the other in the myriad of forms that “sake” can take is the journey of the Christian. Paul says that having been set free from sin we become slaves to righteousness.
Meet Our Newest UBCer
Madison (“Maddie”) Michelle Balk
Birthday: 8/7/20
Birth Weight: 7 lb 14 oz,
Birth Heigh: 19.5”
Enneagram Number: 5 w 6
Family Resource Pantry
UBC, we need volunteers this week, and for the rest of August on Thursday and Friday’s at the Food Pantry. The need has increased, we are serving over 70 families a week now. We need more hands to help pack boxes and deliver boxes on Thursday and Friday. Please consider signing up for a shift using the link below. If you have any questions, please contact toph@ubcwaco.org. We are have decided to extend the pantry through Labor Day, so please help out over the few weeks.
https://bit.ly/communityfoodpantry
Parishioner of the Week
Will Knight for responding to the call to come help stack chairs after church on Sunday … ON HIS BIRTHDAY NO LESS! for the rest of you that didn't come help … remember, God is watching.
Work is Worship
Greeters: No Greeters this week
Coffee Makers: no coffee makers this week
Mug Cleaners: no mug cleaners this week
Money Counter: no money counters this week
Leadership Team
If you have a concern or an idea for UBC that you’d like to share with someone that is not on staff, feel free to contact one of our leadership team members.
Chair: Kerri Fisher: Kerri_Fisher@baylor.edu
Luci Hoppe: lhoppe@gmail.com
Jeremy Nance: Jeremy.J.Nance@L3T.com
Joanna Sowards: jo.sowards@gmail.com
Kathy Krey: kathykrey@gmail.com
Jose Zuniga: jzgrphix2002@yahoo.com
Taylor Torregrossa: Taylordtorregrossa@gmail.com
Student Position: Davis Misloski
Student Position: Maddy O’Shaughnessy
UBC Finance Team
Do you have a question about UBC’s financial affairs? Please feel free to contact any of your finance team members.
Catherine Ballas: catherine@refitrev.com
Jen Carron: jen.carron78@gmail.com
Mike Dodson: financeteammike@gmail.com
George Thornton: GeorgecCT1982@gmail.com
UBC HR Team
If you have concerns about staff and would like contact our human resources team, please feel free to email any of the following members.
Erin Albin: erin.albin1@gmail.com
Sam Goff: samuelgoff92@gmail.com
Rebekah Powell: rpowell671@gmail.com
Kristen Richardson: wacorichardsons@gmail.com
Craig Nash: Craig_Nash@baylor.edu