Your God Is Dead 2

Sometime way back in August, I wrote a post about the T-shirt Beth made...the one that declared in big graffiti letters "YOUR GOD IS DEAD." A few weeks ago, she wore the shirt to school.  For some reason, on that particular day it really pissed me off and we had some words on the way to school. Well, in actuality, the only spoken words came from me.  She was mainly sullen and silent.  After I got over being pissed, I came to the conclusion that it was partly anger at God...and partly "up yours" defiance...with the added bonus of getting attention.

She wore the shirt on an after school walk downtown to the library.  She wrote about it later on her myspace blog....and about a confrontation she had with a man who stopped to defend God.  The following Sunday, I found out he wasn't the only one who noticed the shirt.  The new pastor at the UM church we go to noticed too...and she got attention all right.  She made the sermon the following Sunday at all three sermons!!!  About six hundred people heard about the girl in the Your God Is Dead T-shirt.

The sermon was about "Who is Jesus to you?" based on the scripture when Jesus asked Peter "Who do people say I am?" "Who do you say I am?"  Peter, of course, answered, "Thou art the Christ, the son of the Living God". 

Please note the "Living God" portion of this scripture because that was the springboard for his sermon illustration.  To my surprise, the sermon illustration was Beth! He began his story by telling us about "the other day, when he was driving home."  And how he saw a girl walking down Market Street....wearing a T-shirt.....and that he could not believe his eyes...nor could he believe what the T-shirt proclaimed in bright red and black letters.

Emily and I looked at each other.  OMG, we knew where he was going with this.  Yep...the T-shirt said, "YOUR GOD IS DEAD."  He said he drove a few blocks toward home but decided to turn around and go back to talk to her.  At this point, I thought he was the guy she wrote about on her blog but he went on to say that by the time he got back to where he saw her last, she had disappeared. He continued, telling us that he could not imagine how sad and lonely that poor girl's life must be to wear a T-shirt that not only proclaimed that her God is dead but that "YOUR" God is dead too.  

Of course, Em and I knew the identity of the mystery girl. And so did the two youth leaders Emily is so close to. The leaders who, at one time not that long ago, Beth was close to as well. 

At the conclusion of the service, Spencer (youth leader) asked if he could say something to the congregation.

"If you are here and do not know who Jesus is, ask one of us...ask the person who brought you...ask the pastor." 

He went on to talk about "being Christ" to someone...and then he said,

"Because, that girl in the T-shirt--I know that girl. She's been to our home...she's been to our church." The implication sort of hung in the air that perhaps, as a church, they had failed to reach the girl in the "YOUR GOD IS DEAD" T-shirt .

By that time, I was crying.  The girl sitting with Em (who used to be best friends with Beth) knew about the shirt and I leaned over and whispered in her Mom's ear, "That was Beth." She gasped a little.  She knows Beth and likes Beth. She was there when Beth had that "experience with the Lord" at Impact.  She has had a lot of trouble with one of her kids and is empathetic and kind. 

I'm guessing the pastor thought it was a pretty safe bet that nobody listening to his sermon knew the girl...and definitely nobody listening to his sermon had actually given birth to her.  As I mentioned earlier, he is a new pastor and my attendance is sporadic at best.  He probably thought her parents were sleeping off Saturday night's hangover and definitely not sitting in his new sanctuary.  (It was the consecration of the newly remodeled sanctuary....big crowd Sunday) 

There were refreshments after the service, but I left right away.  Later that day, I wrote him an email introducing myself as the mother of the girl in the T-shirt.  I let him know that my other daughter, Emily, is very active in the church and in the youth group.  She is part of the youth leadership committee etc.  He wrote back today and said he would pray for Beth. 

Just another one of life's interesting, ironic, you never know who might be listening moments.