A Slice of Jesus

For Wilshire Baptist Church

We were in Waco last weekend for Baylor Homecoming and saw some old friends and did some of the usual things we like to do. On Saturday morning we watched the parade, and Baylor does it big with more than 200 entries including bands, floats and cars carrying deans, dignitaries and representatives of various student organizations. The one we hadn’t seen before and that really got our attention was a pickup truck with a sign on the side that said, “Baylor Pie Club.” Not pi, as in 3.14 – the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter – but pie as in apple, cherry or coconut cream. That brought smirks and snickers enough, but LeAnn and I lost it when the parade announcer said, “The Baylor Pie Club meets monthly to enjoy pie and talk about Jesus.”

Oh my gosh, really? How goofy and great is that! If they’d had that club back in my college days I’d have been all in. I mean, who doesn’t like pie? Or Jesus? And together – that’s definitely a win-win. I looked up the pie club later on the web and found this description: “Monthly meetings include pie, worship, prayer, and community. It is our goal to not only serve the Baylor community, but the Waco community as well.”

That sort of halts the joke and actually stirs my admiration and jealousy, because the truth is that when I was in school the practice of faith was mostly church-based. If you weren’t sitting in a pew on Sunday, then you weren’t considered a person who lived their faith. That’s probably one of the reasons our parents checked on us weekly, even at a school with a well-established and promoted focus on faith. We’d talk on the phone on Sunday nights and the question would usually come: “So . . . did you go to church this morning?”

I’ll never forget the time my roommate got a call from his mother. I didn’t hear her question, but when he answered with, “We’ve been increasing in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man,” I could hear her voice across the room. I don’t know what she said but I could tell she was not amused. I guess quoting verbatim from the gospel of Luke was seen as sarcasm and not as a sign of actual progress.

Thinking back on my collegiate church attendance, I have vivid memories of my first visits as a freshman to most of the large, name brand Baptist churches in Waco, starting with First Baptist and the beloved Peter McLeod with his rich Scottish burr. But then my memory gets fuzzy about where I spent Sunday mornings during my sophomore and junior years. I’m sure that fuzziness has nothing to do with staying in the dorm to study or sleep in.

On the other hand, my memory of my senior year is clear: I was in church most Sundays and sometimes even Saturday evenings — with the Catholics. That’s because my girlfriend who would become my first wife was Catholic. That’s definitely not what my parents expected, but hey, I was in church and I was practicing my faith – even expanding my knowledge of liturgy and ways to practice and experience that faith. And Msgr. Mark Deering’s rich Irish brogue was a nice bookend to Peter McLeod; Scottish Baptist and Irish Catholic is a potent mix.

When I graduated and came back to the Dallas area, I fell back in line with the Baptists on Sunday mornings after worshiping with the Catholics on Saturday nights. But even though I’ve been firmly planted at Wilshire for almost 30 years, I believe those years of youthful exploration and even inactivity opened my mind and stretched my heart.

And Wilshire, God bless it, has welcomed and encouraged that exploration even into my middle years. Instead of letting me settle into predictable patterns, I continue to be challenged and stretched. We’re not doing “pie with Jesus” specifically, but we do just about everything with Jesus. That’s important because a healthy faith doesn’t keep God in a box at church; it goes wherever God is, and as it turns out that is everywhere.

I had already written most of this when a friend texted and said he wanted to come by for a chat and he would bring dessert. He came and we had a good conversation that covered a lot of topics. We even talked about Jesus and more specifically the church and our faith journeys. And wouldn’t you know it: he brought pie.