Mike Paschall . com

Watch this 3 minute video first and then let’s talk about it.

I guess a case could be made that sometimes the church house is nothing more than a festering cesspool of hypocrisy and shenanigans of pretense.  Or it can be the place where everyone (and I do mean every person) can come and partake of the mystery we know as the body and blood of Jesus.

This particular scene in the video is the final 3 minutes of the movie:  Places in the Heart.   The setting is Waxahachie, Texas during The Depression.  Sally Fields’ character (Edna) is a young widow because her husband (Sheriff Royce Spalding) was killed in a freak accidental shooting by a black kid (Wylie) who was highly intoxicated.  The very last frames of the video show Sherriff Royce and Wylie sitting beside each other in church.

The Klan executes immediate punishment on Wylie and drags him to death.  From that point on, we see the hardship that Edna must face as she attempts to keep the farm, raise two kids, get the crops to market, and face a future without her husband.

The entire movie brutally deals with racism, unforgiveness, and the chauvinistic elitism of that time period.   Any young white widow, who was receiving the only help that was really offered, from a blind guy and a black handyman drifter, was asking for a lot of trouble.  The movie tells a hard story well.

I’m not going Ebert on you… just setting the stage.

I love this video mainly because of the people on the pews (villains and saints) and how the sacraments were being served (passed from person to person).   Regardless of what you think is actually happening theologically as they ingest the bread and the wine, the common-union in that moment sews each one of them together into one single organism.   It’s quite beautiful.

Laced into those sacraments is the explosive component of forgiveness.  It is only right that it be passed among ourselves.  As HE forgave us, we in turn forgive others (Col 3:13).  As we receive the sacraments, we in turn give the sacraments.  It’s a continuum of grace and forgiveness that heals and sets us free.  That is the true purpose of a sacrament:  a heavenly transaction that becomes a genuine expression among mankind.

The gospel is only a story until we mediate grace and forgiveness to each other.  That is what makes it credible… real… immediate… alive.  The perfect opportunity to pass along what we already possess.

Shelve the bullhorn.  Forgive.

“The Peace of God”

Mike  xo