Bikers welcome!

Short thought this evening. After spending a day this week driving around with about a million bikers, seeing signs everywhere that either said "No bike parking anytime" (or something along that line) or "Bikers welcome," I stopped here for a bit.

There was a time in my life when this would have made absolutely no sense to me.
I would have given you every reason under the sun why a church cannot be "drive-in," why there are probably no "real" members, and basically tried to convince you that this is not a church.

But we all grow and change, and my understanding of who the church is has undergone a bit of personal examination.

The gospel for today, the third Sunday in Lent, is John 2:13-22. It's a story we often don't know what to do with, because Jesus getting torqued and whipping the heck out of a bunch of folks making a decent living in the temple doesn't make sense to us. So we make it all about the corruption in the temple and the religious authorities, and it's easier to take.

But Scripture makes a claim on us. At some point we have to suck it up and say, "Yep, I'm just as misled and misunderstanding and caught in my own ways as everyone in that courtyard. That whip should sting my ankles and throw me to my face in front of this Word of God, who reveals his glory to the world.

I admit, I love my earthly temples. Nothing makes me happier than a stained glass window, a stenciled dome, or an exquisite baptismal font. This day also included a stop at the Basilica of St. Paul, where 70 foot ceilings, beautiful murals, and huge spaces create a holy space for a thousand or so.

Yet my heart keeps coming back to this little drive in church by the beach.

If we take Jesus at his word, then the temple he raised up in himself invites us to meet our God in the reality of Christ's presence. And we don't need vaulted ceilings and marble floors, beautiful as they are. We need space to pull up and spend time with the Creator of the ocean that's pounding across the street, space where  a preferred mode of transportation, or any other visible or invisible characteristic, does not define us, space to worship in the community that is the body of Christ not tied to a particular architectural form but in sanctuary of our Lord's presence.
And all are welcome.