Last week I was called to be a “greeter” in church. The Lord had me take the assignment . He put it in my heart many days ago and He gave it a new name when Pastor called to ask . The Lord called it “doorkeeper” and gave me Psalm 84 as His word to confirm the call . I am not ashamed to write that it is the most glorious calling in the body , that I would “prefer it” above all things. It is the welcoming of folks into a place where they may go from “strength to strength” until they “appear before God in Zion.”(Psalm 84 vs7).
My first Sunday as doorkeeper, I awoke very early and asked God to bring something through the door from Himself that we (the church) might display Jesus to this one He would bring . And, I prayed, that God would have great Delight in what He would see as His presence was seen. I was expectant. Doorkeepers should always be expectant. Jesus says we should be very expectant. He calls it “staying awake” Mark 13.
Pastor was preaching when the door cracked open.I saw the sun light draw a line across the floor. The pastor from across the street was bringing to our church a homeless man. But, a homeless man entering the church was not all that was happening. At that moment, God was preaching with Pastor. He was preaching an Amen to all Pastor taught about. . . answered prayers and walking in the Spirit and bringing forth the kingdom of God. How beautiful for God to interrupt with His amen .
I don’t know if everyone liked how the chorus from God looked. I don’t think we always like how Jesus looks in a homeless person. It leaves us thinking we are uncomfortably overdressed, overfed, overconcerned . We glimpse at what it is like to have nothing. But, at the same time, when the homeless child has Jesus , we see what it is like to have everything in Jesus. We see finally that Jesus is everything only when He is all you have.
As we laid hands on Will and prayed, I saw that we are all homeless. He is indeed our brother and together as a family of believers we feel “at home”. But, we are not home yet. We are “aliens “Paul writes. And that is why our souls “long, yes faint, for the courts of the Lord” . . .”like sparrows” in search for a home (Psalm 84:3) so our souls are restless until they rest in God (St Augustine).
As we sent Will off, I knew I had met another “doorkeeper”: a “doorkeeper” to the homeless. And I knew that God had answered my morning prayer beyond what I could have asked or imagined.
