Mary, Do You Know?

This past Saturday, members from Refuge and Chetek Alliance fellowships in our community pooled our talents and for 4 ½ hours on a beautiful moonlit night read Scripture, worshiped and interceded for our community. The site of this unique prayer gathering was the newly opened House of Prayer in Chetek located in the Courtyard right next door to the Hope and Anchor Coffeehouse. In 2009, our two congregations, with some help from two other fellowships in town, had put on a Live Nativity at Main Street Park a block away. The concept was simple: read the story from Scripture, involve some worship and add some sheep, a calf and an uncooperative mule, and from 6-11 p.m. with live actors reenact the story of the First Christmas. While few people came out to witness the event that had not really been the point: the purpose had been to simply read the Story over and over again our city one night in December. Last year the plan had been to reprise this but the historic December 11 blizzard changed all that. This year, the brain trust of Kari & Nicole felt led to take a different tack. Instead of just reading the appropriate passages from Isaiah, Matthew and Luke, why not read portions of the Jesus Story from all the Gospels and Revelation? So they put together 35 pages worth of Scripture readings interspersed with songs by the worship team made up of kids from Refuge and Alliance led by Kayla and on Saturday night gathered downtown at the House of Prayer.

The House of Prayer is not really a house – it's more like two rooms that are still being painted and decorated. So at the onset of the evening there may have been 50 people squeezed into that small space giving it the ambiance of a Christmas party more than a prayer meeting. Lots of cookies, bars and hot chocolate were on hand so that only added to the party-feel. Meanwhile out in the courtyard, a single speaker was broadcasting both whoever read Scripture on the outside and the worship team who played on the inside (cold air and playing musical instruments for an extended time do not make for a good combination.) After about an hour, both Kari and Nicole felt like a stop had to be made to the “party” and encourage people to start praying so they spoke with Rick who graciously reminded everyone what it was we were doing here. Eventually as some of the kids left and the readers kept reading and the worshipers kept worshiping, a distinct change occurred in the atmosphere inside the House of Prayer. It became more worshipful, more contemplative. Out in the courtyard, unexpectedly a couple of guys from Stringers, one of the drinking establishments in town, walked across the street and wanted to know what was going on. Troy, one of the guys from the local YWAM-Campus, had fun with that. But for the most part it was just Christians engaging in prophetic acts that not surprisingly went unheralded by those frequenting B&B next door or the aforementioned Stringers and Indianhead Bar across the street or Mary's Pub around the corner. I'm sure if we did anything it was raise eyebrows than raise awareness. But I'm okay with that – that first Christmas Luke when the shepherds ran in from the fields in their haste to find this One the angels had sung of they must have raised some eyebrows, too.

Maybe the weirdest moment of the night for me, however, was around 10 p.m. when Mary came in. Mary used to be one of our volunteers at The Garage, our local youth center and she and I, as members of the governing board, had occasion to work and interact together. She is a pleasant person who works in corrections (actually I know quite a few nice jailers) and has a heart for kids. And is a lesbian. For as long as I have known her (maybe 9 years or so) she and her partner have lived outside of Chetek. And Saturday night, exactly as Nicole was reading from the closing chapters of Revelation, she and her partner and her partner's mother walked into the House of Prayer. By that time, all of the little kids were gone and a very worshipful attitude had come upon the 20 or so people who were left. The atmosphere was anything but jolly. Most were praying silently with their eyes closed but in came this crew and headed right to the hot chocolate and began mixing some up. Mary saw where I was sitting and came over and after a quick embrace sat next to me. After the exchange of a few whispered pleasantries and bringing me up to speed on her life, I asked her: “So, Mary...what brings you here?” “We saw it in the paper and came to listen to the singing,” was her reply. There was not supposed to be any advertisement but someone at The Chetek Alert had taken it upon themselves to post a news release figuring we had forgotten to do so. So, right at the moment that people were quietly praying and Nicole was reading this -

"Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city. Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood...”

- here I sat with Mary, while trying to listen to her but also wondering to myself if she was actually hearing what was being read. My guess is she did not. When I indicated to her that most of the singing was done (it really was), she figured she would join the rest of her party who, according to Kari, had left abruptly after grabbing their hot chocolate. We'd like to think it was the convicting power of the Holy Spirit at work that produced their rapid departure but it could have very well been that what they saw perplexed them – a woman reading from something outside while everyone sitting in Quaker-like silence on the inside. It probably was weird for them, too.

Since Saturday night I've wondered to myself, “What was that all about?” Was it just an odd coincidence? A freak occurrence that out of the thousands of locals who saw that news release only two people committed to what the Bible calls an immoral lifestyle actually stopped by to see the “show”? I didn't try and engage Mary in a conversation about eternal things. I just made small talk. Anyway, she caught me in the middle of my own prayer reverie when she came in and I'm usually not that quick on my feet. Maybe I was supposed to say something after all. Or maybe the Lord was putting a face on this passage of Scripture so that I would be provoked to care more and thus pray more for God's kingdom to come to our city for Mary's sake and her partner's sake and for all who live here who are in danger of being found on the outside when His kingdom ultimately comes in its fullness.