The Best Things in Life...

I enjoy driving to church. On Sunday mornings, the roads are quiet, nobody’s rushing and I can drive and think and meditate. It's peaceful. There is no controversy or drama on the way to church, and while the drive takes slightly longer (only slightly) than it takes a woman from Herman Cain's past to jump out of the woodwork to accuse him of misconduct, it is one of the best parts of my week.

Which is why I was tickled recently when my peaceful journey to church was broken up, interrupted even, by blunt ignorance. The other day, the other Sunday, I was driving to church next to a fellow in a weathered, rustic pickup truck. As he passed me, I noticed that he had a bumper sticker in the back window of his truck that said, "Gas, grass or ass...nobody rides for free."

As you can probably imagine, the fellow's passenger seat was empty. I laughed out loud at the fellow, the empty seat and the bumper sticker (it all missed ironic by just a hair). It could have been a singular coincidence--with the exception of that Sunday, the fellow normally has someone in the passenger seat of his car giving liberally of one or all of the items his bumper sticker indicated would suffice as car fare. However, more likely, he was riding alone, as he perhaps often does because the people close to the guy don't want to feel like every interaction with him is a transaction.

All too often, our churches take a position toward its congregants that is similar to the fellow with the bumper sticker. Oh, we may not have bumper stickers that are as brash as the one above, but the message is the same: if you are sitting in the pew for worship, or Bible study, or otherwise using the church's resources, you must provide something of extrinsic worth. If you do not, you are not welcome.

I have seen with my own eyes, pastors of churches tell people who are not tithing to sit down and be still so they wouldn't block God's blessings to people in the church who do tithe. I have witnessed pastors tell individuals who say they do not have a monetary offering for a worship service but would like to donate their time singing or working in the food pantry, that the kind of offering they have is not "Biblical"--that they must bring a monetary offering. I have seen scores of people silenced or sequestered from church leadership, because they have little or no money to give.

This isn't my manifesto against tithing. People should give of their time, talents and whatever money they can comfortably and cheerfully give to build Spirit's kingdom. However, church is the last place that people should feel like they are perpetually a part of a transaction--that they have to give in order to exist, worship and serve in the church.

One of my favorite show tunes has a line that goes something like: "The moon belongs to everyone. The best things in life are free..." Now, you all know that I believe in the infallibility of both the Bible and the Broadway show tune. But, shouldn't we be able to add church and worship as some of the best things in life that are free also?