Home > Archived Blogs >

I saw Jesus this week.  I watched individuals come and clean, cook,

greet, sit at tables during lunch talking to HPCA students, donate

food, put food baskets together, and invite.  Reflecting, I realized that

I saw Jesus this week.

Don Pate (new pastor for the campus church at Pacific Union College)

remarked on his website this week that God could see more in a dirty

drunk on a street than a deacon in a polished pew. His point:  The

street is where Jesus established Christianity, not in a church.  It's

true.  I thought of all the Bible says about Jesus. You cannot argue;

Jesus' Christianity was out in the street. Sitting in a

polished pew, I am afraid for many, is a placebo, having only a

psychological effect.

It is true and the Gospels make it clear that Jesus regularly attended

church. So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And

as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and

stood up to read.(Luke 4:16)  So it was his custom.  But with a

bit of irony the one time that the gospels specifically point out

Jesus going to church, He reads a text from Isaiah that proclaims:

"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to

preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the

brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of

sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed. (vs

18)  Jesus goes to church to announce that the Holy Spirit working on

Him is taking him into the streets.   The pew is a good place to

worship; the street is a good place to be a Christian.

Home | About Us | Pastor's Sermons & Study Guides | Podcasts | Ministries | News | Online Giving | Bible Study | Prayer | Media | Bucks Directory | Calendar | Archived Blogs | Our School | Contact Us