Knock and the door won't be open unto you

As I said in last weeks post, there's something about my placement church I can't put my finger on. Like they go through the motions of Christianity, without the personal relationship which changes how you treat the world and others.


I had forgotten to mention my husband was locked-out a couple of weeks ago. My home church were having their Harvest Thanksgiving service. At it local produce (whether home made or bought) is donated. It's then sold after the service in aid of a nominated charity. I had a couple of jars of chutney to get to them, so my husband dropped them off and came to meet me at my placement church.


Meanwhile, at the placement church I'm sitting there thinking where is he. We'd both traveled on our bikes, so I was starting to think he'd had an accident. Unbeknown to me, he was outside trying to get in.

He was only let in when a member of the baptismal party wanted to leave early as their child was crying. A member of the congregation let her out and found my husband outside.


Their excuse for locking the door was there used to be trouble with items being stolen. Okay, I can understand wanting to tackle the thefts, but is locking a church during the service really the way ahead? To me, that send out the signal that you can only worship if you're on time. I didn't think God worked that way.


Also, I wonder if there's ever been anyone who's felt they really want to go to church immediately (for whatever reason). They want God's forgiveness, grace and presence and feel that being in church is the best (or only) way to be in church. They make the effort, which may be very difficult for them - they have not been to church for a very long time; they live a life of sin (don't we all); they feel inadequate - whatever the reason, they have come. But the church is locked to them. Does that mean the things they want from God are also locked out? I know if I was in that position, that's probably exactly what I'd think.


I know at my home church at least twice someone has come to church very late in the service. Both were homeless and felt something tell them they would find shelter in my church. They did. Through various contacts the church found them some temporary accommodation. We also gave them contacts for finding jobs, getting benefits etc.


About 6 months after one of those people came to my church, they returned. They had a council flat, a job and a local church they attended regularly. They came back to say thank you. The door being open to him had turned his life around. He has just been released from prison and the temporary accommodation had ended. He'd slept rough the night before. He even said himself he was very close to re-offending to get money and accommodation; no-one wanted to give him a chance. The door being unlocked gave him the opportunity to turn away from his old lifestyle for good. God really was in action.

There are ways of letting people in and still protecting property, but at the end of the day you never know when having the door unlocked can allow God in. As Jesus said, "when you help the least of these, you did it for me". I wonder how many times someone has gone to my placement church to be turned away?

As you will have worked out, I feel very strongly about this. I'm going to discuss it with my supervisor at our next meeting. If I get the arguments my husband got, I'll just ask "What would Jesus do - he came for the outcast and sinner, didn't he?". I think it might be interesting the reaction I receive.