Show Them the Door

 
The next time someone comes to you wanting to learn more about Christ, show them the door.

Wait … that didn't come out quite right. Let me explain.

As a liturgical theologian, I think a lot about pulpits, fonts, and tables – all important symbols and signs of Christ's presence and power in the church. But lately, I've been thinking about the doors of the church. When God calls us to worship we cross over a threshold. When we follow Christ into the world we step out through a portal. These moments of gathering and sending are so ordinary that we pass over them without thinking, but they are of profound significance. 

Of course, the Word and Sacraments are also, in a sense, doors. Scripture is the gateway to faith, as faith comes through hearing the Word (Romans 10:17). Baptism is the entrance into the church, as we are incorporated into the body of Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13). The Lord's Supper is an invitation to come and dine with Christ (Revelation 3:20), as well as an entrée to the great heavenly banquet (Revelation 19:9).

As we approach Holy Week, think about the two "doors" at the heart of the mystery of our faith. On Good Friday, the temple curtain, torn from top to bottom at the moment of Christ's crucifixion, as the tombs of the dead were opened (Matthew 27:51-53, Mark 15:38, and Luke 23:45; see also Hebrews 10:20). And on Easter Sunday, the open door of the empty tomb, a sign of Jesus' resurrection from the dead (Matthew 28:2, Mark 16:4, Luke 24:2, and John 20:1).

Considering all these things, I'm increasingly convinced that we need to pay more attention to an oft-neglected element of worship: what we do around the edges of the service, at the doors of the church. Specifically, we need to greet people with more than a handful of paper. How might we better convey Christ's gracious welcome? And we need to send them out into the world with more than a polite handshake. How might we better express Christ's call to discipleship and service?

Perhaps the simple act of arriving for worship ought to be imagined in a more mystical way: as an entrance through that torn curtain, into the very presence of the eternal, living God. Perhaps our departing from worship ought to be more like an exit from the empty tomb, to seek and serve the risen Lord in the world.

Jesus said, "I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture" (John 10:9). Jesus says, "Listen! I am standing at the door, knocking" (Revelation 3:20). So ... the next time someone comes to you wanting to learn more about Christ, show them the door.

May the Lord keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore. (Psalm 121:8)

Comments

[Mike Poteet]

I liked your meditation on doors, and on what it all means for how we greet people at them -- and also how we usher them out when the worship service is over. Are you familiar with the following benediction text? I first found it in Shane Claiborne et al.'s "Common Prayer," but I don't know if that is its ultimate source:

May the peace of the Lord Christ go with you,
wherever He may send you.
May He guide you through the wilderness,
protect you through the storm.
May He bring you home rejoicing
at the wonders He has shown you.
May He bring you home rejoicing
once again into our doors.

I like its image of the church building doors being open and ready to receive us as we come back again after another week (or day) in the mission field.

[David Gambrell]

Thanks, Mike. I didn't know that benediction, but I do like it.

[Teresa Stricklen]

It's interesting to me to think about this in connection with all the text (see Ex. 26) that's given over to specifying how the curtains for the tabernacle are to be made with "cherubim to be worked into them," as though it is the angels who form the perimeter of the worship space around the presence of God.

Thanks for the benediction, Mike!

[David Gambrell]

Thanks, Teresa. Another angle is the entrance liturgies and songs of ascent in the psalms ...
Psalm 15: "O Lord, who may abide in your tent?"
Psalm 24: "Lift up your heads, O gates! and be lifted up, O ancient doors!"
Psalm 84: "I would rather be a doorkeeper in the house of my God than to live in the tents of wickedness."
Psalm 122: "I was glad when they said to me, 'Let us go to the house of the Lord!' Our feet are standing within your gates, O Jerusalem."

[Dan DeBevoise]

Thanks David for this post. Ever since reading it I've been thinking about a poster that showed church doors of the PCUSA. One of my favorites are the doors at the Bethel Mission (a ministry to farm workers) in Wimauma, FL. Beautiful wood carving of Jn 15:5. It represents not just a door to a room but to a life together; a ministry.

It also reminds me of what Gordon Lathrop says in "Holy Things" about how what happens at the entrance is the first step into the "ordo". So that we are invited in with a "welcome and a warning"; here are holy things for a holy people.

Good things to think about as we worry whether we have the snazziest outdoor banners for Easter.