A FRIENDLY DISCUSSION

“Therefore whatever you have spoken in the dark will be heard in the light, and what you have spoken in the ear in inner rooms will be proclaimed on the housetops.” (Luke 12:3)

Today, I was “on the road” at lunchtime and I ate lunch at Friendly’s at Routes 27 and 109 in Medfield. To my surprise, Friendly’s was CROWDED. I did not expect that on a weekday, especially with a bad economy. It was filled with teenagers and parents with young children, so I quickly realized that Medfield must have had no school today as part of the Labor Day weekend.

Sociologists frequently speak of “demographics” and I felt the “demographic” of Medfield as I sat and waited to order. I live in Framingham which President Bill Clinton described in 1994 as, “a town that looks like America”. What he meant is Framingham is a very diverse community. Framingham’s neighborhoods range from quite rural and very pricey (near the Sudbury border) to congested, poor, and urban in parts of downtown. The neighborhood I live in is about a mile north of downtown and has been compared (I think fairly) to Boston’s Hyde Park neighborhood. It’s working class with older homes, but a relatively safe and nice neighborhood. At just about any restaurant in Framingham you’d be used to seeing a number of Brazilians, many of them speaking Portuguese. There would typically be some African-Americans, some Hispanics, and even some Russian immigrants. Medfield’s Friendly’s had a distinctively white, upper-class Republican feel to it. I actually felt UNCOMFORTABLE with no poor and minority people present, and I’m a Republican!

Later, as I sat eating my cheeseburger (D.C.M. - don’t laugh!) I could hear two elderly women in the booth behind me talking. I heard the word “sermon” and THAT made me perk up and start trying to hear what they were saying. One woman complained that her pastor’s sermons are too long and too boring. She was very unhappy that church lasted an hour and forty-five minutes and that up to five hymns are sung. The other spoke well of her church saying that her minister knows enough to never preach more than twenty-five minutes, and makes sure the service never lasts more than an hour. She happily said they limit the hymns to three! I SO wanted to turn around and give them a talking to...but I didn’t!

Now, don’t get me wrong...I don’t even like services that go on FOREVER... that is if the Holy Spirit is not moving and some guy just wants to hear himself talk. But, if the Holy Spirit is moving and wonderful things are happening, it’s a pleasure to be in the house of God no matter how long it takes! My African-American brothers and sisters have this right. It’s not unusual for an African-American service to last two or even three hours. The people tend to be “dressed to kill” and frankly, I like that. The choirs and other worship teams know how to sing and know how to praise God! And the service isn’t like a funeral- it’s a celebration! Recently my daughter Rachel commented that she likes the way Black preachers preach. There’s that ENTHUSIASM, and even that musical quality to it. It ain’t boring!

Yeah, demographics! I guess over twenty years of living on the southside of Framingham has rubbed off on me because I sort of felt like a “person of color”...like an outsider, in upper-middle class Medfield today. And, I wonder how Jesus feels at those churches the elderly ladies were talking about. Check out the New Testament passages about Jesus turning over the tables and throwing people out of the Temple (in John 2 among other places); that may not be far off as far as how He DOES feel about it!