The Usual - 5/31 /05 2005 Archive - 2006 Archive

The cup from a fast food restaurant reads: “Don’t come in and order the usual, because we won’t have it. That’s not what we’re about here. We’re about something different. We’re about something much better than the usual. Maybe that makes us unusual. But that’s how we think around here.”

I can’t help but think that there are some parallels between the church’s mission and this restaurant’s mission. To be sure, the restaurant is all about selling more food; and like most marketing strategies, offering unusual fare for a limited time is a clever ploy to get more people in the front door.

The church is also about the unusual, but for a different reason. To all who labor and are heavily burdened, we are called to offer the respite of an alternative life. Rather than simply being a ploy to increase attendance, the church’s alternative is an invitation to see and live for a holy purpose. It is a call to recognize both our value and worth to God, as well as to seek our part in God’s plan. The value and worth that God holds is apart from deserving and earning, and is an unusual alternative to the economy’s claim on us as inferior producers and desperate consumers. Understanding our connection to all of creation is an unusual alternative to the market’s urge to hoard and protect ourselves at the expense of all others. These two alternatives provide a balance for living joyfully and simply.

Maybe our bulletin cover should read: “Don’t come in and expect the usual, because we won’t have it. That’s not what we’re about here. We’re about something different, something much greater than the usual. We’re about gratefully responding to the gift of life through lives of joyous service.”

© 2005 Todd Jenkins