Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Chapel on the 29

"How many of you are ready for 2012?" she called out in a loud voice. Those of us on the 29 bus were startled to hear someone shouting on the relatively quiet bus line. "Barack Obama is going to be your last President-- there won't be a President in 2012. 'They' are challenging Jesus the Living God and there is going to be mass destruction. Jesus is getting ready for them because he knows what 'they' are going to do."

This woman preacher had made her bus seat into her own private pulpit and us passengers were her captive congregation. One passenger smirked to a friend, another turned up the volume on her iPod. A toddler stared at the woman with his mouth agape and the bus driver peered curiously at the woman in the rear-view mirrow.

Undaunted by our passivity and our disinterest in pending doom, the speaker started singing in a surprisingly strong and beautiful voice. "How great is our God; how great is our God..."

"COME ON, SOMEBODY SING IT WITH ME!... How great is our God..."

She continued singing her contemporary chorus while our multi-cultural, traveling chapel on wheels roamed the streets of the city. While I don't quite follow her theology, I believe that her zeal, courage, and sense of the sacred came closer to "church" than many a congregation I have visited in my time.

2 comments:

  1. While I don't share her theology either (or her political leanings -- YES WE CAN!) I am kind of interested in the 2012 doomsday idea. It is not a new one; in fact it is very old. 12/21/2012 was an important date to the ancient Mayans.

    I'm not losing any sleep over it, or preaching to busloads. I just file it under "wait and see". =O)

    For more on 2012 doomsday, you can visit this google search results list: http://is.gd/sYnu

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  2. Ahh... very interesting, Keith. So it appears that 12/21/2012 is the end of the Mayan calendar and could include a catastrophic event such as an asteroid hitting the planet, or a nuclear war. As you say, I will file it under "wait and see".

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