So baby, let's sell your diamond ring
Buy some boots and faded jeans and go away.
This coat and tie is choking me
In your high society you cry all day.
We've been so busy keepin' up with the Jones
Four car garage and we're still building on
Maybe it's time we got back to the basics of love.
So goes the utopian vision of Waylon Jennings' ideal way of life that might come to pass one day in Luckenbach, Texas. Imagine a world where those things we buy to impress one another are replaced with "the basics of love." Or imagine a day when everything physical that gets attached to Christianity--buildings, appearances, landscaping, etc.--is replaced by communities of faith who love and accept those who other churches have hated and rejected.
The basics of love.
The day is almost here when the diamond ring of "churchianity" is being exchanged by the boots and faded jeans of small gatherings of disciples around the world who pool their resources in order to focus on the simple and singular mission of welcoming those who know what it is like to not be welcomed. I know that sounds idealistic. But that's the business I'm in. I'm in the business of trying to move people-(Thanks be to God)-from a world of unmet expectations into a world of God's gracious possibilities.
We church types get in the way of God's will every day when we choose to build an institution with a brand name, rather than simply opening our doors to whomever might walk in, be invited, or even dragged into such an idealistic venture as "God's holy people." Christians are tempted to get together and build the perfect beast; seems to me that Jesus is more interested in redeeming the hopeless. I am now convinced that has nothing to do with external forms. Anywhere will do. Moreover, everyone is welcomed. The days of the church in America as a pretty building where the well-dressed, well-groomed, middle class gather for a couple of hours a week is flickering lightbulb. Unless the contemporary church is willing to welcome everyone, regardless of the way they look or the lifestyle they keep on that fateful day when they first walk up to God and ask to talk--until that happens, the church will only continue to come across to non-church types as a homogenized blend of parrots who are so out of touch with the world that they would never dare to have a conversation with anyone other than those who think and behave exactly like their own circle of friends thinks and behaves.
Once upon a time, a small group of people followed Jesus to Luckenbach, Texas. Waylon, Willie, and the boys were there in the bar. Across the street from the bar was the Luckenbach Gospel Baptist Holy Church of God in Christ. Jesus looked at the group of people who followed him to Luckenbach and asked, "Which side of the street needs us more?"
Maybe it's time we got back to the basics of love.
