Krystal’s
first impression of the Lolium Missionary Bible church was that it was
impossibly small. While she was unschooled on churches in general, the
ones she remembered from the city could seat a thousand or more people. They
also had gymnasiums and classrooms and music rooms and daycares and….
Parking the car, she saw about a dozen other vehicles in the parking lot.
Walking up the wood-chip covered path she noted the new paint and the shiny stove-pipe running up the side about ¾ the way down the long wall that ran away from the parking lot.
Stepping into the building, the first thing she noticed was that it was all one room with a slightly raised platform at the far end. She was not great at guessing dimensions but she realized the space was not much more than what you would find in a two-car garage. The ratio of the width-to-length was about two-to-three.
The floor was made from massive, smooth, unfinished planks and the opposing walls were tied together by iron rods and turnbuckles at the roof-beams to keep the side-walls from splaying outward.
The windows were many paned, clear, beveled glass on the east wall with tinted glass on the west windows.
There was a book-rack just inside the door that contained Bibles. In the corner on the other side of the door was a small room that she assumed was the “facility” with a small sink and table beside it.
Near the altar was a cast, concrete pad with a slightly raised lip around the edge. Based on the firewood stacked nearby, that pad was where the wood stove would be put in the winter. The end of the stove-pipe that stuck through the wall nearby was stuffed with fiberglass batting.
Otherwise, most of the room was empty except for several rows of folding chairs leaning up against one of the walls.
Coming through the door, Alice and Krystal were met by the preacher. "Hello, my name is Mike" he said.
He appeared to be in his early fifties with very dark brown hair lightly sprinkled with gray. He had brilliant, sapphire blue eyes that Krystal was sure came from contact lenses. He was wearing a simple, black, button-down shirt with the sleeves rolled-up and black slacks. Krystal’s feminine appraisal was that he had been a total heart-breaker in his younger years.
As she was shaking his hand, she heard a familiar voice. It was Janet!
Janet asked about Charlie and Krystal told her that Charlie was happy in his new home although he was a “total magnet” for burs.
Then Krystal asked, “How is your sister?”
Then racking her mind she added “...your sister...Judy?” half guessing.
“Still hanging on” Janet told both her and Alice.
Looking around Krystal counted eleven older women (not including Alice) and three men not including Preacher Mike.
Preacher Mike suggested that the congregants check their Bible to see if it included the apocrypha because the day’s first reading would be from 2 Maccabees, Chapter Seven. The apocrypha is not included in all printings of the Bible.
A few women, including Krystal, moved back to the rack of Bibles to select one that included the apocrypha. Krystal waited at the back of the line, not wanting to inconvenience any of the regular church goers.
When she reached the rack, she found herself drawn to a leather covered Bible. Its cover had a patina from decades of being held in-hand and read. The place where gold-leaf lettering had been was worn and unreadable. There were countless yellow sticky-notes wedged between the pages.
Opening the book she marveled at the archival quality paper and noticed that the book included the apocrypha.
Walking back to where Alice was sitting, Alice indicated that Krystal should sit in the folding chair between her and Janet. Krystal complied.
Janet startled when she saw the Bible that Krystal had selected. “That was Judy’s!” she said.
Then she held up her own Bible which was its twin.
“I can take it back” Krystal said, taken aback by the intensity in Janet’s voice.
“No, no. Keep it. Judy would want to to be used and to go to a good home” Janet said.
Preacher Mike started the service by inviting the congregation to stand, if they could. Then he led with a short simple prayer from the six-inch-high altar platform.
"First and Second Maccabees was written about two hundred years before Christ was born. It tells of the Israel Nation resisting Greek culture. Judea was a backwater country at the fringe of civilization and Greece was the center of culture and near the center of power." Preacher Mike said.
"The Maccabee wars started when a Greek official demanded that a Jewish priest make sacrifices to a Greek god. The Jewish priest killed the Greek official and the war was on." Preacher Mike said.
"2 Maccabees, Chapter 7 is a story where an evil king tortures and kills seven brothers, one at a time, because they could not violate God's laws."
Then Preacher Mike asked if anybody in the congregation wanted to read the first five verses of 2 Maccabees, Chapter 7.
One of the women raised her hand and started reading in a clear voice that carried. Krystal guessed that she had been a teacher at some point in her life.
When “the teacher” had finished reading, the preacher informed the congregation that the fact that there were seven sons was significant. The number “7” implies completion or perfection in the Bible which tied back to God's seven days of creation in Genesis.
Five verses at a time, the congregation read through the entire chapter with the preacher layering in commentary between each segment. Nothing big, just a few observations or pointers on how the story would have been perceived by he people of the time.
He repeated verses 22 and 23 for emphasis;
"I cannot tell how ye came into my womb: for I neither gave you breath nor life, neither was it I that formed the members of every one of you;
But doubtless the Creator of the world, who formed the generation of man, and found out the beginning of all things, will also of his own mercy give you breath and life again, as ye now regard not your own selves for his laws' sake."
“The seven sons’ testimony are like the petals of a flower and the mother’s words are the center of the flower that joins them together” Preacher Mike said.
After the first reading the preacher had them open up to Luke 19:12 to read Luke’s version of the parable of the master who entrusted his servants with gold coins while he went on a journey.
The same protocol was followed. Various volunteers read five verses which were usually followed by some comments from the preacher.
After the readings were finished, the preacher left the altar platform and sat in a chair next to a younger woman who Krystal assumed was his wife. Then Preacher Mike asked the congregation “Which of the seven sons did you identify with the most?”
That started a dialog in the congregation. When it was winding down, Krystal ventured "I identified with the third son."
Preacher Mike asked "Any particular reasons?"
"Yes. He had to know what was going to happen to him. The first son could not be sure. And the third son still chose death" Krystal said.
Krystal paused to organize her thoughts and really appreciated that nobody jumped in before she finished speaking.
"And he probably never thought he would be the oldest son, the head-of-the-family. If he had folded the rest of the family probably would have followed suit and he would have been very important."
"It took a lot of courage to not only face death but to give up the prospect of being the head of the family" Krystal said.
"The biggest thing is that he faced death with serenity. That is something I have seen in some of my patients and it is something I wish I had" Krystal said.
The rest of the congregation nodded in agreement. One of the women, Betty, chimed in "Well said."
The discussion then morphed into a discussion of the reading from Luke. The consensus was that the master was very harsh. Discussion wandered all over the place. One woman noted that the account of the death of the sons atoning for the sins of the Israel Nation seemed to anticipate the death of Jesus dying to atone for all sinners.
Another tangential discussion involved parallels between Maccabees and the tension between traditional American values and "the new world order" being imposed by media and the UN.
That caught Krystal's attention. She thought she was living in times totally unique in human history.
For the most part Preacher Mike let them talk. He had to remind one woman to let other have a turn and he redirected one wandering line of discussion back to the readings.
After an hour of discussion, Pastor Mike ended the discussion by standing up and observed “When reading the Bible, it is important to pay attention to the context of both the surrounding text and to the times.
“For instance, at the time Maccabees was written, boys were preferred to girls because girls left the home and moved in with their husband’s family. Having sons meant that you had the help of your daughters-in-law with the chores of getting water and firewood and kneading bread. If you had no children or if you only had daughters then you had to do all of the work even when you were old. And sometimes you were left homeless when your husband died before you did."
At this, the elderly women were nodding their heads. They knew about hard work and outliving husbands.
“The odds of raising seven sons to adulthood were astronomical back in the days before modern medicine.”
“To do so was to show that you were very, very favored by God.” Pastor Mike said. “These readings teach us that God sometimes extracts a very high price from those He loves the most.”
Then the service ended with a prayer.
Then it was followed by a social-hour.
Next Installment
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