THE LOST SHEEP IN COSTCO

Years ago while serving in Spokane, I was walking through Costco doing some shopping. I was dressed in my clericals. Placing myself in the proximate occasion of sin, as the moral theologians call it, I walked down the aisle with all the candy and making my way to the gourmet jellybeans. Coming up the aisle were a mother and daughter eying the same jellybeans. They arrived first, picked up a jar and looked at them. They saw me approach. "Those are really good," I said, and walked on down the aisle. I resisted temptation!

I turned left and came up the next aisle and met mother and daughter coming down the aisle. They stopped, looked at me all dressed up and asked, "Do you work here?" I smiled, said, "No," and walked on. The demographers say that less than 30% of the people in the Northwest are "churched." I must have met two of that 70+% who are not. As I moved on, I thought to myself that they must have thought that I was a modeling a new outfit, a new kind of turtleneck shirt that Costco had on display.

     
In all honesty, though, I was taken aback. That was the first time in my life that I had ever met anyone who didn't recognize a clerical collar and also realize who was wearing it. That doesn't mean, of course, that anyone who wears a collar is a cleric. My brother-in-law, Dennis, has one of my old clerical shirts he has worn to Halloween parties. No one there mistakes him for a priest. When he wore it to accompany a friend of his son's to take his driver's test who had failed it three times, the State policeman invited "Father" to go along for the test drive. The kid failed it miserably. But the policeman passed him because the "Good Father" was along for the ride. When I wore mine to take one of my daughters for her test, she still failed. I wonder what that says?
        
Both of these incidents occurred here in the East. Is the West that different, a place where there are those who have never seen a clerical collar? Of course not! But it was also an eye-opener to me. It was a reminder that I do not have to look very far to find someone who has never heard about Jesus Christ. I can look down the aisles of any Costco anywhere even here in church-going Western Pennsylvania and will find such a person.           
 
When Jesus left, he left the church in our hands. He said to go out and make disciples of all nations, of everybody, wherever we find them. That would include the aisles of Costco. But it is not enough to simply find ‘the lost sheep.’ Anyone can do that, there are so many of them around. That’s the easy part. What is important is what we do after we have found that person, and that is, don’t do as I did: smile and walk away.
          
Perhaps Costco was not a good place to evangelize. But I could have at least told them who I was and not simply said that I was not an employee of the place. That would have been a very good first step. Years before I was in a Wal-Mart dressed in jeans and shirt and ran into a lady. She introduced herself and asked me if I belonged to a church. When I told her I did but was from out of town, she invited me to her church the next time I was in town. If I had learned from her back then, perhaps I would have acted differently in that Costco. Unfortunately I did not. I certainly hope that I have learned by now.