Secular & Sacred

As I met Kevin and Mark, the pastors at One Place in Phoenix I got to see a duo of very creative co-pastors. I knock on the door and wait for Mark to greet me and let me in and we all introduce ourselves and begin dialoging. Mark returns to his office, a makeshift table and a beautiful old 'goodwill' sort of arm chair from the 60's in the front of the stage floor level where the chairs filled on a Sunday night look to be a giant waiting room. He pulls up his desk, a quaint little plastic table with marker graffiti and writing all over it, and begins to tell me that this desk of his is also the cash table for all the concerts that come through their church; the church doubles as a music venue to the community and art gallery on Friday nights. They host in the winter about 1-2 shows a week and in the summer months 20-25 shows a month. Mark speaks up that approximately 70% of the shows are probably not Christian. Oh and then he mentions the table that people write on which probably has profanity on it his covered with a cloth and the elements are laid on it for their communion service the previous Sunday.

Their is something magnificent about how we treat what is secular and what is sacred. It seems to me that growing up, those were not able to coexist, much like a radical Muslim and conservative Christian strolling through the park sipping ice tea together laughing at the most recent 'Fox Trot' Sunday comics. See, I was brought up to believe that once something or someone becomes sacred that any signs of the old, any signs of the secular must be doused with gasoline and torched.

Many times we [Christians], do so good at portraying to non-believers that they are wretched and are unclean as was the individual that had leprosy and was removed form the camp until he was better then still had to wait many days before the priest would allow him back into the camp. And because of their condition we can not coexist!

Can what is sacred and what is secular coexist? I see Jesus who was perfectly content being with the non-believer and I would even further the statement and say that he found joy when he was amongst the secular. Jesus was, at least in my Bible a little more radical, a little more dirt under the fingernails, a little more willing to risk the view of what was suppose to be ideal sacredness for any church leader, let alone a follower. Today's Jesus I believe would mess up the theology of many of today's pastors. I believe Jesus of today would cause a lot of repentance, but not the typical repentance of, "I'm sorry, please forgive me", but a repentance from the church pastor that has the attitude of "how could I have missed it all these years". There have been too many moments of conviction from the 'priest' to the 'leper' of what must change and what can not coexist, and I believe God is saying today, "I want to mess up your theology a little and let you see that I am not so easily defined as you once thought".

Take a walk through the gospels and see how many times Jesus was with the seculars. The interesting thing is both places he went... He was either at the sacred Holy temple chastising the "self-puffed, self-righteous sacred leaders" explaining to them that they have missed it and simply don't get it. They were great on theology but lousy on application. They knew how to live the bible intellectually but not missiologically. Or the other place Jesus was at was with the seculars, the lepers, the drunks, partyers, etc. hanging out, feeding, teaching, loving, and number one of all SERVING. I do believe secular and sacred can coexist, the main difference is that the secular does not try to convict but loves and serves!