Passing the Plate

Once again, Jeremy Huggins has some brilliant musings, this time on passing the plate, humping Darwin-fish, Easter, and how they're all related:

Last Sunday, my church held its Easter service at a neighborhood museum, which was very confusing, not because of the new location but because of the bronzed Darwin-Fish Humping a Sandbag sculptures just outside the front doors. I can describe the sculptures for you, but five days since my first encounter and I still can't explain them. Perhaps I should just take a picture and let you interpret (one at a time, of course, and orderly, lest the stranger be confused).

I'll be the first to admit that "church" can be confusing sometimes, and not just for the uninitiated, the disenfranchised, and the adherents to the Cult of the Fertile Sandbag. Sometimes I don't know how best to respond. During Sunday's service, when the normal time for the offering plate to come around came around, I realized I had earlier used my last shekels on cigarettes and coffee, but I did have in my bag some tenderable good: decision time: I quickly summoned up everything I could recall from my seminary ethics class, but I couldn't recount anything that would help me determine the morality or lack thereof of placing a winning $5 scratch ticket in the offering plate.

And then, as so rarely happens in these matters, the decision was made for me. The pastor had decided (in my mind, a beautiful decision) not to take up any offering lest those who visit church once a year associate the hearing of the gospel with payment. Times like that, I'm terribly fond of the church.

Do yourself a favor and go read the whole thing... [yes, he has posted pictures].