News from The Curch of the Resurrection, Baltimore
WORDS FROM FR. ELIOT Have you ever had someone try to sell you something you really didn't want? Perhaps it was when you were shopping for a car, or a piece of clothing. Today we don't even have to leave our homes to get these offers; a caller asking if you want aluminum siding or a new roof (and don't even get started on email Spam).
It doesn't really matter the context, when we don't want something we don't want it. Sometimes we are even quite sure that what we are being offered isn't exactly a quality item anyway. To make matters worse the offers that come via phone often break into our homes and our lives at dinner time when we are trying to reconnect with our family or just step away from the crush of the day.
On the door of the office across the hall from the Church office is a sign that reads "No solicitors please". We don't get a lot of solicitors (in fact I can only think of one) but I can imagine some sales people might be intimidated to come into a Church office. In the past when solicitors have come in to my various offices they have usually come selling either services I had no use for or junk that I definitely had no use for (and much of which may have been stolen).
I think people are sometimes hesitant to come to Church because they feel that they will be sold something that they don't want; that a solicitor will break in upon their lives at an inconvenient moment. On the flip side, I think people are sometimes hesitant to share their faith because they are afraid of being seen as hucksters selling snake oil.
Truth be told nothing is being sold here. No products. No get rich quick schemes. No new siding for your house - or your life. No solutions to all of your problems. What we do each week is to come and learn of God's great love for us - his most intimate creation - and to thank and praise him for his unwarranted grace and mercy to us. And when we go out we aren't called to sell anything but only to witness to the reality of God's love in our lives as we walk in the world. Sometimes that comes in speaking of who Jesus is and often it means reaching out with hands of love and compassion.
Come one, come all, come and take the free gift of grace!
