The Building of Church

On my way to church, I spotted my friend repairing the broken handrail on his neighbor’s steps. “You’re going to be late for church,” I said as I stopped my car near him.

He turned to me and said, “This is church.”

A minute later the front door of the house opened and a woman with a cast on her leg appeared. “Thank you!” She shouted to him.

Further down the road I saw an elder in our church attaching jumper cables to a car parked along side the road.

“You’re going to be late for church,” I shouted from my car as I stopped next to the disabled car. 

“This is church,” he said as he turned to connect the cables to his car.

I drove on and saw our choir director walking on the sidewalk with a grocery bag. I stopped along side the street and shouted to her. “Need a ride?”

“No,” she replied. “I’m taking this food to a homebound couple.

“You’re going to be late for church,” I said as I looked at the clock on my dash.

“This is church,” she said.

I drove on to church and quickly sat down just as the service started. I noted several empty chairs and wondered why more people weren’t here. Then I spotted my friend I saw earlier on my drive to church slip into the back row of seats.

I turned toward the front of church just as the pastor stepped to the lecturn and read a passage from the Bible:

“Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers’ hands?” And he said, “The one who showed mercy toward him.” Then Jesus said to him, “Go and do the same (Luke 10:36, NASB).”

A modern day parable inspired by Luke 10:30-37.