Which sounds better, hypocritical agnostic, or agnostic hypocrite?

I wish you could have come to church with me this morning.  (I know.)  The priests at this church are so darn good.  The best line from this morning's homily was "Jesus never loses his peripheral vision."  Nice one.

It was the story of the dude with the dying daughter, and Jesus came to help out.  On the walk there, an outcast of a woman grabbed at his clothes because she wanted to be healed.  Jesus stopped, healed her, spoke with her, then went and performed his miracle on the daughter.

Part of the focus of the homily, though, was the juxtaposition between the father - probably a well known guy in town - and this woman, who had been sick and shunned for over a decade.  The priest compared her to the woman under the overpass, unseen by so many, who lives on the curb.  The priest said that this story isn't about those people, though; it's about Jesus (as the Gospel stories usually are.  Snort.)  The father, who is used to being seen, had to wait while Jesus spoke to this unknown woman.  The father was noted in the gospel by name.  The woman was nameless.  But Jesus sees everyone, said the priest.  He never loses his peripheral vision.

And the homily continued with a focus on how we should follow that lead.  How grace and happiness comes to us through serving, showing kindness to others, etc.  And this is why I love this place.  Just because I'm agnostic doesn't mean I can't take lessons away from the Bible.  ALSO - oh jeez I almost forgot about this - he talked about seeing God's grace in others, etc., and said we can't ignore or push away others... and he specifically mentioned Muslims, illegal aliens, and our enemies.  We have to seek God's love in and through them.

I love this.  I'm not exactly "seeking God's love," but I'm seeking humanity.  Commonalities.  Grace, too.  Everybody has it, but with some folks you have to dig more.  I know, I'm throwing up a little bit, too, but these are my feelings.

There's this bit in The Preacher's Wife where they talk about coming to church to fill up every week.  As if we have a gas tank where we need to replenish our resources in order to do good, see good, remember what's good, etc.  This is what church should be, and what it never was for me growing up.  After I grew up (snort again), moved out one my own, etc., I found that going to my parents' house and Grandma's house did this for me.  It became my guiding church, refilling me on remembering life's real priorities.

And what I posted the other night about my new friend - that wasn't just a refill.  That was a major overflow.  It was amazing.

This morning was a lovely refill.