Liz, the Tower Museum, and My Experience at Two Island Churches

One of the fun things I got to do during my weekend at Mackinac Island was meet up with a fellow blogger and permanent island resident, Liz of The Quilted Turtle. Not only that, I picked up my very own pair of Mackinac Mittens that she and two other Mackinac Island teachers have been frantically making (to keep up with the high demand from area stores). In fact the beautiful pair I picked up had been made just the night before, perhaps while Zach and I were on our bike ride!

Liz and her mother (whose recent blog about her extended trip to Egypt is quite fascinating reading) met me at J. L. Beanery, a quaint little coffeehouse that sits right on the water between the docks and the Bay View Inn. This is the coffee shop Zach and I have always gone to. A few years back a Starbucks opened on Main Street, but I refuse to go there. Not only because I think Starbucks coffee sort of tastes like burnt dirt, but also because I hate the presence of a multinational corporation on what I and many others consider sort of sacred ground. It's as if someone opened up a Hummer dealership on an island whose roads not only don't allow cars but also would barely be wide enough for one Hummer. Sure, some of the business owners may not live on the island full time, but largely this enclave is run by local people supporting themselves through one location. It burns me to think about all the money that is now being directed to Seattle that should be staying on the island.

Anyway, my ranting aside, we had a great time getting to know one another on a more personal level. With the sun amplified by the walls of windows, we sat squinting and perhaps beginning to sweat a bit in our warm clothing. I got some valuable information from Liz about what the island is like during the winter (valuable because I'm currently writing a novel that takes place there over the non-tourist season) and it was fun to hear more about "real" life there. She filled me in on city government, how the island gets its power, which businesses are open year round, etc. I talked a bit about life as a pastor's wife and about Lansing and my former home of Grand Rapids.

Saturday night Zach and I went to mass at Ste. Anne's, a beautiful Catholic church. There are four main church buildings on the island, representing Catholic, Episcopal, Congregational, and Presbyterian denominations, though it doesn't appear there is a congregation at the Presbyterian church. There is also a Bible Church that meets in the theatre at Mission Point Resort, which we attended Sunday morning.

Being Baptists, we sat in the back at Ste. Anne's and fumbled a bit through the liturgy. Parts I caught on to because of my Lutheran upbringing and Catholic friends, but some of the words were still different. What made the service difficult to follow was that the priest was not amplified and had a thick accent. In addition, sitting behind us were people who kept having their own little side discussions. Turns out that they were the ones who then got up and took the collection, so they were obviously regulars. Perhaps they should be participating more in the worship service rather than just coming out of habit to do their job. Disappointing. In addition, the homily was a meandering string of thoughts that seemed to consist largely of the priest talking about how he did not want to move where the diocese was telling him to move, despite his vows to obey their authority. All in all it was a bit of a bummer. We skipped out as communion (Eucharist) began because we don't believe in transubstantiation. For my Catholic friends and readers, don't take this as a critique of the Catholic church proper. It was one church on one day. Don't worry, we'll be getting to the Bible Church soon . . .

Before the sun set Saturday night, we took in the Tower Museum at Mission Point, something I didn't know existed until we stayed there. It is seven floors, each with a small exhibit. Lighthouses, the Mackinac Bridge, shipwrecks, freighters, the 1980 movie Somewhere In Time which was filmed on the island, the Moral Re-Armament movement, and island benefactor and architect of the Moral Re-Armament movement Frank Buchman. It was a very well-done museum and the payoff of climbing those stairs is a view of the island I had never had the pleasure of having.

On Sunday morning, as I mentioned, we attended the Bible Church. It was the standard praise band doing praise songs that are mostly about me and how I'm feeling and what I'm doing, rather than what God has done. These songs just don't work for me in worship services because I'm never actually currently feeling what the song is proclaiming I'm feeling. Why can't I just sing about what God has done through Jesus Christ? Why does it all have to be about me? The several songs (with much repetition of the choruses) were followed by a sermon that contained nuggets of God's truth but they were veiled in a lot of works-based statements about what I must do as a Christian to retain God's favor.

It's unfortunate that at least 2 out of 4 churches on a given weekend do not present the Gospel message of sinners saved by grace through faith in Christ, sinners saved from God's righteous judgment. If I were not a Christian, barring a miraculous move by the Holy Spirit, I would not have understood anything about true Christianity. I would have come away feeling guilty for not always doing my best but with no hope for what happens when I mess up. What a waste of an opportunity to spread the Gospel to the thousands upon thousands of visitors that come through each week!

These two churches were coming at it from the far right and the far left, but both were preaching works righteousness. The problem is that all of my best works cannot save me. Apart from God's grace and election, I cannot choose to follow Him, I cannot do enough good things, I cannot avoid enough temptation, I cannot pay my debt to Him.

"None is righteous, no, not one; no one understands; no one seeks for God. All have turned aside; together they have become worthless; no one does good, not even one. . . . For by works of the law no human being will be justified in [God's] sight, since through the law comes knowledge of sin."                                                        ~Romans 3:10-12, 20 (ESV)

The law can show me my sin, it can make me aware of my wrongdoing, but it cannot save me. How I wish that the Good News (preceded by the very necessary bad news that I am a sinner separated from God with no way of my own power to close the gap) was preached in the place that long ago Jesuit missionaries brought it to the Native Americans living there. There are millions of Americans today who need to hear that God can save them, that God holds their salvation, that they don't have to (and can't) do it on their own.

One really good thing that came from going to two mediocre church services on vacation (which I'm sure all of you do) is that it made me appreciate all the more what a gift I have in my husband. I have almost never heard another preacher give a sermon and not wished I was listening to Zach. He has an incredible gift of unlocking and explaining the Scriptures, a deep love and fear of God that comes through in his messages, and a commitment to treat the Scriptures honestly, even the difficult ones, all the while reaching out in love to (and challenging) his flock. I'm so very blessed to be one of his sheep.