THE DAY MICHAEL JACKSON CAME TO CHURCH

I admire guys who come to Christ unscathed from the battleground that the ‘world’ out there is. You know, guys who answer everything with a shout of asharanaya ashabarahanda and revert to business as usual whereby everyone minds their own business and the weary amongst us build an island around them. Think of this as Michael Jackson coming to church, with his music and his eccentric lifestyle.

I am not an expert but I think Michael tried all he could to communicate to us and we did him the greatest disservice a human being can do to another. Michael walked in through the church doors with a diaper hanging on the wrong side of his pants… and we pushed him to the edge where he threw himself off the cliff and to his premature death. I call it premature because Michael died without getting his message to us. His music was a way to get to connect with us but all we did was think he knew how to sing well, and yet that was his only way of sharing his pain, tribulations, loneliness and his desire to connect with a people who have become expert mind readers.

Okay, before someone goes asharanaya ashabarahanda let me share part of Michael’s letter that we returned marked RETURN TO SENDER.

In my darkest hour, in my deepest despair

Will you still care, will you be there?

In my trials and my tribulations

Through my doubts and frustrations

In my violence, in my turbulence

Through my fears and my confessions

In my anguish and my pain

Through my joy and my sorrow

In the promise of another tomorrow

I’ll never let you part

For you’re always in my heart

Take some time and listen to Michael Jackson’s address at the end of Will You Be There and you will realize we let him down by failing to read between the lines. Just watch Michael’s concerts and you will know how much he was adored and yet when we took his last breath he knew, deep in his heart the world had never really understood the pain, the anguish and the loneliness he felt when the concert was over and the camera flashbulb had been switched off.

I picture Michael sitting in his vast estate surrounded by all the Diana Rose face masks he thought would make us stop and seek to find how we could be of help. And how many people do we come across every Sunday and having become too familiar with their tribulations we push them to the edge of the cliff? Let us take time to read between the lines every time someone shares what they are going through without trying to offer our expert opinion. Let us fit into their shoes by finding out how they really are throughout the week because this is not something you can do during a church service when you are told to… say hi to five people and find out how their week has been. Care enough to find out way before and just use the other time to seek for feedback and how you can really be of help. Everyone needs someone to be there for the. I don’t know about you, but I do need someone to be there for me. Someone to help me carry the cross, someone to help me keep to my lane, and someone to show me when it is the right time to switch lanes.

Now what would happen if Eminem or Adele or Mavado were to come to church? Will we think of the church as a market place that has its fair share of madmen and so let the ‘madmen’ be as we mind our own business?

Acts 2:14 says, “Then Peter stood with the eleven, raised his voice and addressed the crowd (on behalf of the Eleven)… and gave out what they collectively, through the Holy Spirit, agreed on. Meaning Peter spoke what any other person from the Eleven would have said. This means we, as a church, need to find out how we can meet the modern challenges facing the church and have one voice that cuts across the scattered Body of Christ. We need to find out how we can minister to Michael Jackson by ensuring that men are raised to take up the 5 Roles of a Good Daddy which are:

1. Present
2. Protector
3. Provider
4. Priest
5. Prophet

Listen to Kanji Mbugua’s Just a Man I and you will notice just how much the whole world needs a good daddy. Well, our fathers might have failed the test but the buck stops with you and I. As much as we might not have had the ideal father in our lives we need to end this now by taking it upon ourselves to find out how we can fill the vacuum that irresponsible fatherhood has left, and with it the many broken lives. Let us build each other instead of bringing each other down. Let’s engage with one another beyond the usual Sunday church hallelujah moment. And above all else, let’s prepare the church for Eminem’s homecoming by taking care of the needs of the ninety-nine sheep that are already in the Shepherdom.