Beer, Bar Tricks and Jesus
It is clear to me that there are a vast many people that are yearning for the truth — the truth of Christ and the redemption he has for our haphazard and wayward souls. And it is clear that many will never necessarily light the doorways of our churches — unless we go to them.People are questioning life, and God is providing the many moments for us to share with others his transforming grace. Tonight, this was my experience at the local bar. You want the typical picture of the postmodern mind? Spend some time in your local bar. After a couple of Redhook ESBs and a few silly bartender tricks, my girlfriend and I could see that even in their slap-happiness, the bartenders flirted with boredom.
One of them, Chris, just getting off his shift couldn’t get around his extrovert ways and sat down to chat with us. This guy was an avid reader (of pseudo-Buddhist writings, but also of the Bible), born in a broken home where he was told that there is not one way to believe. To him Siddhartha was no worse or no better than Christ (Christ still being alive the beautifully glaring exception). As I said, this is the mindset of our postmodern times.
He kept getting on religion, and how it is the real problem. I kept on agreeing, acknowledging that religion is irrelevant and obsolete. I told him that the real crux of the issue is Christ and our personal acceptance of his redemptive act on the cross. Well, at this point religion had been deconstructed, and a normally extroverted young bartender drew to the inside, contemplating what I hope was Christ.
And Church happened in a bar, over beers and bar tricks. And hopefully a searching heart was spun off its course into the loving gravitational pull of Christ. I dunno, maybe it did anyway. God provided the moment, and I clumsily stepped into it. God grant me, and all of us, more such divine moments of being the church, wherever we are at.
alex mcmanus