Unknown Title by Beam Stephen

Author:Beam, Stephen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-07-11T00:00:00+00:00

4 Coffee and Donuts

Most of the congregation walked over to the parlor and stood in line around a couple of fold-up tables stocked with three platters of donuts and two large stainless steel coffee makers. A short, stocky man helped serve coffee to those in line. When he saw George approach him, he said, "Thanks for the impromptu sermon you gave. I don't agree with it, but I'll think about it." He handed George a cup of coffee. George thanked him and then moved down the line to where the creamer, sugar, and donuts were.

Within minutes, everyone held a styrofoam cup of hot coffee in one hand and a donut in the other. Gil was standing near the pastor as people came by to talk with Pastor Israel and comment on his sermon. Gil had a hard time gauging the mood of the people that spoke with the pastor. He figured everyone here was familiar with him, and the sermon must not have come as any big surprise. And they were undoubtedly familiar with the unique style of delivery he used at times. But in reality, the cousins had no way of knowing if the subject matter of today's sermon was unusual for this church or not. The service certainly shot off in a direction they didn't expect.

Gil listened carefully to the comments said to the pastor by his congregants. He couldn't catch all that was said, but most were complimentary. But he detected a rising undercurrent of disapproval as the minutes passed by, a growing stream of resistance to where the church service finally ended up, with George Foxe's off kilter view of the atonement doctrine. What began as a small trickle of disapproval and some random murmuring grew, little by little, into a quiet rebellion. More and more congregants voiced alarm. Small groups started to form as like-minded people found their comrades. The first hint of something going truly sour amongst the congregants was a well-dressed man in his gray Sunday suit shouting out in anger. Gil was nervous. He scanned the various groups looking for George. He finally spotted him circled by a group of five people. Was this a good or a bad thing? His gut said this might be a good time for them to leave.

Gil walked over to his cousin and stood about four feet behind the people that congregated around him. He decided to stay quiet and monitor what was said, gauging the positive versus the negative. An elderly man wearing comically thick glasses approached George, raised his Bible to his chest and held it like a shield over his heart. He frowned and angrily shook his head in disapproval at George, then turned around and walked out the parlor door, forcefully slamming it shut.

Gil looked over at Pastor Israel and saw more than half of those who'd been talking with him walk off with looks of disgust on their faces, shaking their heads in disbelief. Something was afoot here, and Gil knew a theological battle had broken out from the bits and pieces of a conversation he'd heard.

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