Celebrate!

When I get homesick, sound is what soothes my soul. 

This has been a truth for me since college, my solace in times of sadness. Listening is a comfort.

At Valparaiso University, the student body helps put on a contemporary worship service every Wednesday night called Celebrate! My senior year, Celebrate! became my life, my community, and my refuge.

This past Wednesday, I found myself sitting in the WiFi (pronounced wee fee) room of Lovasoa,Antsirabe in Madagascar missing Celebrate! On a whim, I decided to check my Facebook feed-- God must have been in the wires that night, because the first thing I saw was a link to a Celebrate! sermon on SoundCloud my college pastor had posted. 

Listening to his voice, the cadence of his speech, the sounds of that community so far away in Indiana soothed my soul. 

The sermon he gave was on Luke 24. 

Luke 24 is possibly best known for the story of the road to Emmaus, but the best part of Luke 24 just might be the end of it. In it, the disciple realize that Jesus is among them and has been all along- they finally know that he has come back to them. 

My college pastor was addressing the first Celebrate! of the year when he spoke on this scripture. And the message that he drew out of it was this: that Jesus always shows up. He always shows up. Even when we're a mess. The disciples are tired, they're depressed, they're worn out and beaten down, they're doubtful and scared and unsure of where to go next. They're a mess. And Jesus shows up. In spite of their disarray, or maybe because of it, He shows up.

You don't have to have your act together, you don't have to be on solid footing, you don't have to be on your best behavior. You don't have to have anything at all. 

And my pastor related that all back to the struggles of being in college, of being a freshman in college, and how you don't need to have your life together to worship God. It was a perfect message for that Celebrate! community at Valparaiso University. 

But this is what I love about Scripture: it doesn't matter where you're at, God will find a way to speak it into your life and your experience and your context. 

I am a mess in Malagasy church. 

I don't know the words, or what's going on. I can't speak the words even when I do manage to figure out where the congregation is at in the translated service bulletin.

I sit up and sit down at all the wrong places, usually a full thirty seconds behind the congregation. I have no sense of rhythm or time in the flow of Malagasy church.

I sing all of the wrong words to hymns, often resorting to singing some mangled version of Malagasy, or even worse, a strange half-English half-humming version of those hymns that I recognize but don't know well enough to be of any use. 

I mess up the long and complicated offering lines that seem to work in an intricate code that I just haven't been able to crack yet. 

I can't concentrate for the full 2 or 3 or 4 hours of worship that is typical of Malagasy services and often find my mind wandering during the sermon or announcements. 

But. 

This is a comfort to me- that we have the promise that where one or more of us are gathered in His name, Jesus will show up. We have the promise that Jesus will show up in the body and in the blood. 

Even when I'm a mess. Even when I mangle Malagasy church. 

He shows up.

Slowly, I begin to recognize Jesus in the midst of Malagasy church. 

I taste Him in communion. In the sacrament where language doesn't matter. In the body, broken for me; in the blood, shed for me. He is present here.

I experience Him in the laughter of little old church ladies (a universal church staple, apparently) who willingly help the lost foreigner find the right page in the Malagasy hymnal. He is present here.

I see Him in the little children who stare and stare at our group of 10 outsiders- only to break out into broad smiles and fits of giggles when you wave at them and whisper "Salama!" (hello) during announcements. He is present here.

I hear Him in the music; in the beautiful, beautiful sound of scores of Malagasy singing with utter abandon in 10 part harmony. He is present here. 

And finally, I relax into this new place and enjoy the experience. It doesn't matter that I can't understand a thing that happens during worship. I've found Jesus in this community of believers, so different and so similar from what I've grown used to at college. I've learned to celebrate the differences, and celebrate the familiarity. Maybe it's a different type of worship than I'm used to, and maybe I'm still a mess in the midst of service, but Jesus has shown up. 

In the words of my collegiate pastor, "When Jesus is present, life is present and salvation is present- and you are made righteous and worthy and perfect in the eyes of God; even if you think you are a mess. When God's word about you differs from your word about you, God's right. Not you."

So I'm a mess in Malagasy church. But Jesus has shown up. And the entire Malagasy congregation, including the foreigners who are lost and a total mess, is perfect in God's eyes. I may still feel like a mess, but He says that we are all perfect. He's shown up.

And that's enough. 

Link to Pr. Jim Wetzstein's sermon for Celebrate! 

26/08/2015, Valparaiso, IN

'Welcome to Jesus' 

https://soundcloud.com/james-wetzstein/welcome-to-jesus 

#YAGM2015 shadow style

We learned how to wash our clothing by hand this past week with some of the Malagasy women who work at Lovasoa-- it was a lot of fun, but definitely hard work. It'll be some time before we can do as much as these women we saw out on a walk one day. 

Went for a hike and got beautiful views of Antsirabe for our troubles. 

Photos don't do it justice, but terraced rice fields are the absolute most beautiful thing I have ever seen in my life. There's a rumor going around that my walk to work in Tanjombato,Antananarivo includes a trek through the rice fields and I am soooooo excited!