{"id":1487,"date":"2011-08-04T15:48:44","date_gmt":"2011-08-04T19:48:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gadflyonline.com\/wpblog\/?p=1487"},"modified":"2012-07-15T20:12:01","modified_gmt":"2012-07-16T00:12:01","slug":"bringing-in-the-sheaves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/bringing-in-the-sheaves\/","title":{"rendered":"Bringing In The Sheaves"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a92011 Glass Onion Productions<\/strong><\/p>\n

A knock on the door.\u00a0 A disheveled looking thirty-some year old man opens it to find two sweet, upbeat yuppies\u2014one male, one female\u2014standing smiling at him.\u00a0 “Hello, sir.\u00a0 We’re from Life Eternal Evangelical Church.\u00a0 Are you a Christian?”<\/p>\n

“No, but I think about God a lot, or whether there is a God.\u00a0 I worry a lot.”<\/p>\n

“Oh, there is a God and he is Jesus Christ.\u00a0 Jesus can ease your pain and free you from your worries,” says the smiling young man as he thrusts a pamphlet into the air.\u00a0 “Why don’t you try our church?\u00a0 The address is right there on the back of our pamphlet.\u00a0 We can help you.”<\/p>\n

“Let me think about it,” replies the disheveled one as he closes the door.<\/p>\n

Several weeks pass and it is a Sunday morning.<\/p>\n

The thirty-some man, now with a dingy sports coat, tie and blue jeans, is walking up the stairs of the church.\u00a0 He hears singing inside: “Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves.\u00a0 We shall come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.”<\/p>\n

The singing continues as he walks through the doors into the small chapel filled with an array of pleasant looking folks singing happily along with the organ.<\/p>\n

Our hero parks himself in a pew near the back, as a woman sitting next to him hands him an open hymnal, smiling, of course.<\/p>\n

Leading the singing, dressed in a bishop’s robe with a purple collar, is the pastor\u2014a fortyish looking pleasant man\u2014a throwback to the sanguinity of the 1950s.\u00a0 Behind the pastor is a large crucifix with a life-like Jesus, head bowed, dead, crucified.\u00a0 It is so lifelike that our hero can’t keep his eyes off it.\u00a0 He is stirred by the image.<\/p>\n

The singing stops, and the congregation collapse in their seats.\u00a0 The pastor eloquently, but gently, begins his sermon.<\/p>\n

“Behind me is the One who gives hope.\u00a0 This One willingly died and gave his blood so that all people, whatever the race or gender, would have eternal life.”<\/p>\n

And with emphasis: “I sense that there is one among us who needs to experience life eternal.\u00a0 This one needs the hope that only the blood will bring.\u00a0 And you know who you are.”<\/p>\n

Our hero, eyes frozen on the crucifix and ears absorbing the pastor’s words, begins to sob.\u00a0 Something\u2014a strange emotion\u2014wells up inside him.\u00a0 He can see the pastor preaching, lips moving, but it is as if all sound has been erased\u2014silence.\u00a0 The congregation, sensing a surrender, turns and stares at him with reassuring smiles.<\/p>\n

Submerging from this deafening moment of emotion he once again hears the preacher speak: “Come forth, my son, and experience the blood.\u00a0 Know eternal life.”<\/p>\n

As if an invisible force has consumed him, our hero’s legs unhinge, he stands and walks down the aisle.\u00a0 The pastor gently extends his hand to the broken figure before him and pulls him up by the podium, facing the preacher.<\/p>\n

Our hero turns his head to gather one more glance at the incredible figure on the cross and notices, for the first time, two puncture wounds oozing lifelike blood from Jesus’ throat.\u00a0 In fact, it is a real person.<\/p>\n

Startled, he turns to look at the pastor who now, fangs bared, sinks them into our hero’s throat.\u00a0 With mouth agape and the pastor’s head buried into his neck, our hero falls into the abyss.\u00a0 Life eternal is his.<\/p>\n

A quick flash to the pews reveals a congregation all with fangs bared as they sing: “Bringing in the sheaves, bringing in the sheaves.\u00a0 We will all come rejoicing, bringing in the sheaves.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a92011 Glass Onion Productions A knock on the door.\u00a0 A disheveled looking thirty-some year old man opens it to find two sweet, upbeat yuppies\u2014one male, one female\u2014standing smiling at him.\u00a0 “Hello, sir.\u00a0 We’re from Life Eternal Evangelical Church.\u00a0 Are you a Christian?” “No, but I think about God a lot, or whether there is a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,200,223,219],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1487"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1487"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3271,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1487\/revisions\/3271"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/gadflyonline.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}