“What shall we do?”
“I think we need to move the overflow to the deck in King George Square and hook up some audio and maybe video equipment. I’ll get in contact with someone. In the meantime, I think we need to reserve seats for our regulars. I’ll arrange it with one of the elders.”
“Thanks, Peter. We’d be lost without you. Maybe it’s a good thing you’re preaching this morning—they may have booed me off.”
The Rev smiled. He had grown used to his boss’s sense of humour.
“Remember, we also had a call about a government minister coming along, so I suppose we better rope off some seats for his party.”
“Will do.” His thoughts went to his sermon, prepared as guided by the Spirit. The Spirit led him to a sermon by Charles Spurgeon about raising the dead. Very relevant, he thought and may surprise a few. He was going to touch on natural death, but his focus was on revealing the state in which all human beings are naturally found, that they are dead in trespasses and sins.
He went and sat in a pew. He looked up towards the high pulpit and prayed quietly to the Lord. May the people in this congregation today have a clear sense of their utter ruin and spiritual death. Bring them out of their slumber, Lord. Restore them to life.
<°)))><
Churchie told Aaron to meet him at a food van at the end of Wharf Street, near the river. He told Aaron that the food van was a soup kitchen where the homeless went for free food and drink. It was Churchie’s favourite. A bakery provided tasty unsold baked goods to the van. Churchie was going to thank the owner of that bakery one day, and he told the volunteer workers this on a number of occasions.
Aaron found his way to the food van and located Churchie. After all that had happened, Aaron decided to join Churchie and attend church with him. Mel and Wally were going to join them as well.
Although he struggled with hanging around with the motley crew, it wasn’t hard hanging around Churchie: he at least made himself presentable and gave off a hint of intelligence. It was harder with the others—they caused Aaron feelings of discomfort, with Mel dressed and acting like a court jester and Wally getting in shape for a stint as Santa Claus. Aaron knew his attitude wasn’t right but he didn’t know how to change it. Was it to do with loss of honour or dignity or something like that? He hadn’t quite worked it out yet. Mackenzie loved them all and didn’t care what others thought. Why were people’s attitudes so different? Was it in the genes? Where did the standard of who you should hang around with come from? He’d had a lot of these questions popping into his head recently. It was a worry.
He and Churchie perched on a bench not far from the food van. Aaron sat staring at the queue, both hands wrapped around his disposable coffee cup. He turned to look at Churchie who had just devoured a blueberry Danish lattice, with crumbs from his treat caught by his shirt. Aaron pointed this out, and Churchie brushed the crumbs away.
Aaron was becoming more aware of the mess in the world, of the battle going on. Good versus evil maybe. He was starting to see all the different charity organisations that fed and clothed the widows and orphans as being at the front lines of a war. He was also starting to see that humans were born into this war without even being aware of it. Were the commanders silent, or did people just ignore them?
Churchie waved to someone. Aaron looked to see that it was Mel and Wally standing in the coffee queue. Mel still had his red and blue cap on but looked neat, and Wally looked more respectable than the last time he saw him—less like Santa Claus.
After getting their coffees, they headed over to join Aaron and Churchie. They greeted each other and then made their way over to the church. On entering King George Square they saw a huge line on the footpath, starting from the church and heading well down the street.
“Wow,” Churchie said. “Betcha they’re all lined up for church. With all that has happened lately, people have become fearful and have come running back to church. Sad thing is, when things settle down and the fear dies off, they’ll stop coming. The Rev told me they had their biggest attendances after the Brisbane floods some years back.”
“Did he say why?” Aaron asked.
“He did . . . he said people seek comfort in faith when big dramatic things happen, where they have no control over things or don’t know what’s going to happen. But when things get back to normal, faith gets pushed to the background and it’s business as usual.”
Aaron understood this. He’d started seeking out faith when he went to Afghanistan and then forgot all about it when he returned home—except these recent events were prompting him to seek again.
“Hey, Aaron, we’ve gone from one food stall to another.” Churchie pointed at the church building. “This is where I found the bread of life.”
Aaron smiled and shook his head. This man would be standing in a pulpit one day.
<°)))><
The motley crew were used to queues; Aaron was not. He tried to take in the happenings around him. Young and old, lots of chitchat, kids running around and parents trying to keep them off the road. A chauffeur-driven car slowed down, as if it didn’t want to run over any kids.
Aaron looked down the line and saw the Rev walking towards them and greeting those in the queue. The Rev paused and gave Aaron and the motley crew a brief greeting—no favourites. He told Churchie there were seats reserved for regulars, and he could squeeze his mates in. No favourites?
Aaron looked at Mel. He got the impression that Mel didn’t like standing still, his eyes were darting around, obviously looking for some activity to keep him amused and it came.
“Hey, Churchie, did the Rev tell you about what happened when he painted this church?” Mel asked.
Aaron smiled. A ‘Mel story’ was coming.
“No, Mel, what happened?” Churchie seemed oblivious of what he was getting himself into.
“Well the Rev bought some white paint that was on sale. After he had painted one side, he realised he was going to run out of paint so he got some paint thinner and poured it in the paint. That made the paint last and he was able to paint the whole Church.”
“That was good thinking,” Wally said.
Mel continued. “Well it rained overnight, really poured. The next morning the Rev went to admire his work and the paint had been washed away. He stood there, and looking up to the sky, yelled out to the Lord in desperation, ‘What shall I do?’”
“The Lord spoke back and said, “Repaint, and thin no more.’”
Aaron smiled and nodded. He heard someone in the queue laugh, obviously eavesdropping. Churchie thought it was hilarious and Aaron heard a few other eavesdroppers contribute to the giggling.
Churchie looked at Wally. Churchie had put his pastoral hat on. “Hey Wally, haven’t you heard the saying ‘repent and sin no more’?”
“No, not really. What does it mean?”
Churchie then put his arm around Wal. “I’m going to explain that all to you one day.” He turned to look at Mel. “And to Mel, too.”
“Repaint and thin no more.” Mel repeated and that brought another round of laughter.
Aaron looked at Mel and chuckled. What a character. Aaron looked at his watch and noticed it was getting close to service time. They had been taking tiny steps and weren’t far from the entrance now. He noticed a chauffeur-driven car pull up and watched as the occupants got out. As they walked up the steps to the entrance, Aaron saw that it was the big man, the minister, and his two thugs. Lucas had shaved off his goatee and moustache. He looked different. But Aaron remembered Lucas.
<°)))><
Aaron’s fists were closed tight, his nails digging into his hand. He was trying to embrace the peace that he sensed in the chapel.
