Your Works Cannot Get You Into Heaven

Your Works Cannot Get You Into Heaven

The call and the claim issued about one year ago.

We are a new church. 

TheRE are young people here now.

We now have programs. 

When I first moved to Wendell, we visited the church. 

White haired elderly is all we found.  That was not conducive to our mixed family.

The songs were old, very old, of the Baptist, White, tradition.  We did not fit into place then.

The first and last visit was made; years ago. 

The lure, the call, the change. 

We went back on to check the claim, me and the kids this time, not an entire mixed family as before.

Shocked I was, bible study was in progress.  The same people there.  The same people from 2005.  No change. 

I was shocked.  They said, “we are new”, new people, new agenda, not just old people anymore. 

A room filled with white haired elderly people is what I found.  So I sent the children along to their groups. 

The reports was from one, they are all Wake Academy kid, the non-integrated school, the one that is hard to get in to.  She said, “No one is there from East Wake”. 

My son said, “My friend and his teacher are here”.  I like this place.  Hum. 

His friend, being driven again by the White Haired Elderly person in a Crown Victoria.  Each time I tried to talk to his driver, her, the elderly person, just to say hi, no response was received, hum. 

The icing on the cake.  I tried to find my child after services.  I wanted to go to the 3^rd floor.  I wanted to see the sanctuary anyway.  So, there they were, the hits from behind, the sudden attack, the blind-sided-ness. The two steps to the elevator.  I could not believe it.  The church, with all the accolades, was not accessible.  This was the shocker.  They build ramps for all, but have none for them.  Wow.  The shocker was the look on his face when he said, “The church was built before *********** and we are not required to have steps”.  Eye to eye, oxygen mask to my face.  Genuine expressions.  Wow.  Unexpected.  His eyes and face said it all, he believed he was  in the right. 

The law is an minimum standard.  Out of love you should exceed those minimums.  That is not what happened.  The law also has the “two steps rule”, meaning if inaccessibility is predicated on just two steps, then you can fix that, but the alternative argument of course is churches are exempt away. 

My works will get me into heaven.  I build house and ramps.  I help.  But, you have a separate but equal mentality.  “Our kids” are in the better school.  We provide for them in our church/club.  We help build ramps, but return to our separate but equal mentality.  We are republicans.  Okay.  Meanwhile, at the prayerless schools, in the separate environment, gangs reign. 

I looked to see about the report.  I believed the report.  I found the report was wrong.  There is no change there.  But we are of greater belief.  They are still my brothers and sisters.  I cannot divorce them.  And, my son wants to go be with his friend.  He too looks beyond color and race.  We have the ability to look beyond being “comfortable”.  My daughter said, “I do not feel comfortable there”, addressing the race/ethnicity issue.  Sometimes though, a person can feel comfortable “there”, and that comfort is beyond the environment, it is inner, that me and my son seem to share. 

At the end of the day, can your works exceed the faith.  Can your works guarantee a spot?  I do not know and that is only for a you and your Creator to answer.  But I do see a problem with “okay, you cannot get into the sanctuary due to two steps”. 

Let me say this in passing, while I use a wheelchair, I can walk.  However, the wheelchair use is to guarantee often that I do not fall.  If I fall, I can be hurt for a day or up to 6 weeks.  They leave massive black and blues; And, more importantly, sometimes, really, you do not want me to get up off my wheelchair seat.  There is no telling what you will find under that seat.  The seat protects me and you. 

I used to have a sign at the entrance to my apartment in Brooklyn NY.  It was “DANGER:  FARTINGZONE”  HENCE, IF YOU ASK ME TO GET UP, THEN, PLEASE WATCH YOUR FALL AS YOU PASS OUT. 

DEDICATED TO ALL THE DISABLED AND ELDERLY THAT CANNOT GET UP TO THE SANCTUARY.  AND, I HAD ASKED IN THE PAST IF THE PLACE WAS ACCESSIBLE, AND THE ANSWER WAS YES, BUT THE REPORT WAS WRONG.