I had an entertaining moment with some re-enactors recently. It started badly. I approached their presentation site, and one of their number called out, “Hey preacher” in a way that told me he had been wounded by someone in the church, and I was going to face the music for it. I didn’t mind. I’ve been hurt by the church as have many. The church is filled with people who are known for their imperfections and humanity in the presence of Jesus who is working to make them better.

Someone in their group used a mildly profane word related to something else and followed it with an apology. I told them that the apology wasn’t necessary. I grew up with all those words and was very familiar with them. As a matter of fact, all it takes is one hammer to a thumb, and all those words come flooding back to my mouth, causing me to fight to choke them back. I prefer an honest conversation with real people instead of making them walk around pretending because I’m trying to learn to be better than I am.

The man had been hurt. People were willing to take, but unwilling to give. The worse part was he needed the friendship and prayers, and that was withheld too. He and I agreed that people are skilled at being bad to each other. He and I needed to agree to keep each other honest so we wouldn’t fall in to that. His complaints about the church were the same that Jesus had with His church. As a matter of fact, God has been facing those failures among His people all the way back to the beginning of the Bible. I guess it shouldn’t be surprised that the problems are still around. The good thing is God isn’t that way. God is far better.

The re-enactor and I had become friends by the end of the conversation with a shared vision of Jesus. I was impressed that the more we spoke about Jesus, the better perspective we both had about ourselves and the people we have to deal with every day. The entire Bible is about relationship, relationship with God. We can work on our relationships with ourself and others in right perspective once the primary relationship with God is established. My formerly antagonistic friend taught me a lot during our short time together. I’m glad Jesus was there to sort things out. Jesus heals broken relationships.