Beyond Heaven and Earth: A Novel About Love, and Death and Life by Propp Steven H

Author:Propp, Steven H [Propp, Steven H]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
ISBN: 9781469752778
Publisher: iUniverse
Published: 2003-11-16T16:00:00+00:00

20

THE CHRIST CONSCIOUSNESS WITHIN US ALL

Jobran pulled the business card from his pocket, to recheck the address. I wasn’t expecting it to look like a regular old Christian church, he thought. He knew that had the right location, however, after he saw the shiny new upraised letters by the entrance, “Stentoria Metaphysical Consciousness Center.”

Jobran was surprised, since he now realized that this was the location of one of the oldest and most famous of Stentoria’s historic downtown churches, although he couldn’t recall of what denomination—but there was no sign of this denomination’s (former?) occupancy of the church. (Probably like a lot of historic “mainline” downtown churches, they had suffered from dwindling membership over the years.)

For once, Jobran was glad that since Abraham was not accompanying him (he had “an aversion to being inside Christian churches,” he said; “It’s not a safe place for Jews”), since he didn’t need to worry about parking, and the bus dropped him off precisely at the corner. Jobran observed that not only was the large parking lot full, cars were overflowing out to the street. and was mildly surprised that the service was so well-attended. I thought it was only the Catholic and evangelical Protestant churches that had large congregations these days, he thought.

Entering through an open gate, he stepped into a courtyard, and noticed that the grounds were very well-kept: immaculately clean, with abundant trees, beautiful flowers and plants, and close-cut grass to provide a peaceful and serene setting. The church itself was solidly built from well-weathered bricks, but there were numerous recently refurbished touches that looked very new and modern in style. For example, the fountain in a corner was surrounded by what appeared to be a Zen-style sand garden; there were stained glass windows, but instead of Jesus and Mary, they were of the Chinese yin/yang circle, a Jewish Menorah, a Mandala, as well as a simple Christian cross. Very inclusive, thought Jobran.

He began to notice the people themselves. It seemed as if about two-thirds to three fourths of the congregation was female, with the males mostly appearing part of a married couple. (And in at least one case, a couple he saw walking and holding hands were both males.) As Jana had predicted, they mostly seemed to be nicely and stylishly-dressed, although with fewer three-piece suits and conservative dresses than you saw at a typical church, and many more stonewashed designer jeans and brightly-colored dresses and skirts.

“Jobran! I’m so glad that you made it!”

Jobran turned, and saw a familiar, smiling face: Jana, from the New Millennium bookstore. She waved at him to come join her, where she stood in the shade with two other women. “Hello,” he said, nodding at the three women, as he reached the group.

“Ladies, this is Jobran…umm…” Jana said, trying to recall his last name.

“Winter; Jobran Winter,” he said, extending his hand to the nearest female, an attractive woman (probably in her late twenties) who gently took it, perhaps holding his hand a bit longer than was necessary.

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