Evangelism

No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand so that those who enter may see the light. . . Therefore, be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright.

Luke 11

We sit in a bar

and I feel about as thin

as the coaster

beneath a second beer

I wish was my ninth

but I’ve been down that road

enough times to know

when to

stop

it’s dark

and it will get darker

as the people get uglier

as it gets later

January is not an easy month

to live in a cloudy part of British Columbia

under Coast-Mountain-shadows

and ten hours of “sunlight”

and you’ve just started talking

about the States

and the fundamentalists

and Glenn Beck

and the trouble with Christians

and I think I agree with most of what you’re saying

I don’t know you well enough

to know why your hands

look like they’ve never touched

anything that wasn’t concrete

or why you smell like an alley

but I like the way your voice sounds

so I join your monologues

and we a have a conversation

about how dark it is

and the service we aren’t getting

and where you’re from

(a city I haven’t heard of

outside of Toronto)

and where I’m from

(a town you haven’t heard of

outside of Seattle)

and you tell me about the 70’s

and heroin

and what it does

and I watched Trainspotting once

we agree that new Star Wars

wasn’t as bad as people said

and you ask what I do

and I say I'm studying

to be a pastor

and you pause

and I feel like

if I were to reach into my bag of tricks

to find John 3:16

this conversation would

stop

so I buy you a beer

and myself another

and we talk about the weather

and how many days there are left of winter

and we close the bar down

and I shake your hand

and I smile as bright

as I honestly can

and walk home.