Shattered

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This past Tuesday morning at 7:36am, I received a text message from one of our team members informing me that the front door of the facility that our church worships in (carefully note that description…more on that later) had been vandalized. Upon further investigation, we discovered that an extremely large brick had been thrown through the tempered glass, leaving a sizable hole, scattering fragments of glass in every direction, and causing the rest of the glass door to be shattered, but intact (that would be a great subject for a sermon: “Shattered, but Intact). I am saddened to report that security footage shows that the likely suspect was an African American (My momma would say n***gas won’t let you have nuthin’ lol), and the incident occurred on Sunday, May 30, 2021 around 9:15am.. Thankfully, nothing was stolen.

Hmmm….

Well, I guess that person really wants us to hurry up and re-open for in-person worship.

But alas, I jest.

All jesting aside, the more I thought about the incident, the more it bothered me. The way my mind works, I can’t help but try to understand what happened as more than just a random coincidence. No one just randomly picks up a rock and throws it through a door, especially in the neighborhood where the facility that our church worships in (carefully note that description…more on that later) is located—an industrial area, behind a highway, where everything is closed on weekends. I don’t want to make too big a deal out of it, but I don’t want to make too little a deal out of it either. Nothing of this sort has ever happened. (Well somebody did steal the copper off the exterior plumbing pipes, but that’s another story for another day).

After pondering this all week, I have some good news and some bad news.

I’ll start with the bad news first.

Since nothing was stolen, and the security camera shows the perpetrator selecting which rock to throw, it is clear that at least one of the motives behind this action is malice. Malice is the pleasure derived from wickedness. It is a delight in doing evil for evil’s sake. When most people do wrong, they do so for an honorable motive. For example, a man may sell drugs to get his family out of poverty. Selling drugs is wrong, but the motive is honorable. When malice is the motive, there is no other objective other than the sheer joy that comes from seeing someone else suffer. In Ephesians 4:31, the Bible says

Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:

Paul assumes that all of us have malicious tendencies, and encourages us to put them away. Here, Paul shatters the illusion that everyone means you good. They most assuredly do not. Far too many of us gain pleasure from throwing rocks at people’s dreams, their families, their marriages, their hopes, their children, and even sometimes their cars. As I wrote a few weeks ago, Saul threw a javelin at David. So if you are walking around expecting everyone to love you and your wonderful marriage and great career and 2.4 kids, and split-level home, be forewarned. The malicious are lurking. They hang out in parking lots. And gyms. And offices. And family reunions. And on dating apps.

Now, the good news.

Seeing that hole should permanently shatter the very popular and very unbiblical idea that far too many of us hold about the true nature and identity of the church (an idea that I also am guilty of and must fight to resist, especially when events like the one I am describing occur). Notice I said the rock went through the front doors of “the facility that our church worships in.” I did not say the rock went through the front doors of our church.” Please understand that there is a world of difference between those two statements.

1135 East Janis Carson, CA is the physical address of the building where Resurrection Church meets to worship. And as we have learned this year (since we could not worship together in person), as important as buildings are, they are NOT the church. In fact, there are many people who believe that the pandemic was one of the best things that could have happened to the Body of Christ, because it forced us to rediscover what the church really is and what the church is really about. In the New Testament, the word church is never used to refer to a building. The word church refers to those who have confessed Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, and gather in his name. Looked at from that perspective, all the knucklehead did was throw a rock through a door. And a rock, however big, can’t hurt the church.

Jesus said

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

Matthew 16:18

Nothing and no-one can ever hurt the church.

The church is bigger than any building.

The church is bigger than any preacher.

The church is bigger than any scandal.

The church will outlive every government and outlast whatever it thrown against it

Everything else may shatter, but the church shall march on!

The rock may have shattered the door, but it should not and cannot and will not shatter my faith.

We good ‘yall.

(And thank God for insurance! LOL)