Keys

   Sodus Point, NY

We spend too much time

   imagining ourselves

      not only having the keys,

   but also deserving them;

      not just to the church building,

   but maybe even to the kingdom.

      And then we walk

into the gospel’s brick wall:

   the phone rings;

      it’s a friend of a friend

   who works in the court system.

The story: an infant in Foster Care

   has been placed on hospice care;

      both parents currently incarcerated.

      Would we host a one-time

   court-granted family visitation

      in the church building?

This is when you realize

that neither of the keys,

actual or metaphorical,

belongs to you; you're

merely borrowing them,

until someone else needs them.

   You realize that such acts,

      small and inconsequential

   as they may seem, are what

being church is all about.

And then you hear a voice:

“Your next step toward being church

is to figure out how to enter

these stories earlier.”

© 2016 Todd Jenkins