I think the Church should be more like a tavern than a monastery!

I don’t intend any disrespect by saying that, but the truth is that the upper room in Jerusalem where the Spirit fell and the Church was born was so alive with life and laughter that people came running to see what was going on. And what they found was so loud and raucous that they thought these newborn Spirit people must be drunk!

Of course, they were NOT drunk. It was only 9 o’clock in the morning.

Besides, they were simply filled with the Spirit.

Many of us grew up in churches where everything was done that could be done to keep the Spirit quiet! There would be no mistaking that church for the Christian Church! It was a church of “shut your mouth”, “be reverent”, and “don’t do anything that might make God want to strike you dead!” Sometimes even our parents conspired to stifle the Spirit. I remember as a child getting a little rambunctious in church and all it took to unrambunctious me was my mother pointing upward toward heaven as if to say, “Don’t get the Big Guy ticked off!”

Did you grow up in a church like that?

Well, try as we might, it is simply not possible to keep the Spirit from being the Spirit. That’s why things happen in church services that remind us about what the Christian Church is really like – like the misbehaving little boy being carried out of church in his father’s arms all the while shouting to the people, “Pray for me! Pray for me!” That’s why that one choir member forgets there is a rest there just before the big finish, and ends up singing a one note solo, off-key! And that’s why the Spirit did what the Spirit did to liven things up one Easter at my boyhood church. For some strange reason – just at the most sacred, somber moment – something gave way and a whole pew collapsed, dropping thirty Congregationalists to the floor! CRASH!

And do you know what the people sitting in that pew did?

They just sat there!

Thank goodness the Holy Spirit tickled Rev. Seale and he started laughing, and the rest of the people did too. I imagine that people walking by outside wondered what in the world was going on inside that church that morning. “Oh, they’re probably just drunk!” someone might have said. But no, it was only 9 o’clock in the morning – and the Spirit was giving birth to Spirit people.

I don’t know if you would feel more comfortable in a monastery than in a tavern, but I know a lot more people go to taverns. Maybe there’s something in that to learn about the Church!