Fillers

Fillers

It started insidiously at first. A few single church members didn’t show up on Sunday; we just assumed they were looking for a church with a more active singles group, or attending church with their families. Then family groups started being absent. We then presumed they were taking family vacations, except we failed to take into consideration the school calendar. After that we heard rumors of groups from other churches that had left for mission fields in the states, like church building committees, or some such thing and never returning. No sightings of missing busses, crashes, or reports of alien abductions. No news broadcasts of anything extraordinary. Just whole assemblies, gone without a trace. Subsequently, one Sunday, after worship services, as we were leaving the sanctuary we detected police vans parked nearby. One by one as members and their kin, reached their cars a police officer would approach them and escort them to the waiting vans. There was no resistance so we didn’t think much of it. But we did think of it. Things looked harmless, they weren’t treated cruelly, yet they were loaded up as family units and driven off; out of sight,..,forever. These people were never seen again. We never learned of their fate. Was there some massive witness protection program in full swing? This all seemed like random activity. Some church members were taken, others were completely ignored. I had been on the church roster for longer than most so tenure didn’t seem to be the uniting factor. There was absolutely no rhyme or reason to the puzzle.

It was more than enough to keep me home on Sundays, and Wednesday nights. It seemed that a church affiliation seemed to be precarious. I didn’t go to church real habitually anyway, since I was a life time member I felt like I could pick and choose my attendance days; so I wasn’t making a big sacrifice sitting in front of the DVD player watching movies. To begin with, I knew most of the church sermons by heart so turning up for church had really lost some of it‘s appeal to me long ago. Now with the mystifying disappearances topped off by the police showing up on our doorsteps and indiscriminately carting us off to jail I decided I would just stay home on Sundays. It was safer.

Through the gossip mill I discovered that former church acquaintances were now being called on at home by official looking visitors. Guess what? They were never seen again. Something was going on but those of us that got together in safe places like a movie theater, or bar, could not pin point the problem. We all went to church and we had never been bothered by any law enforcers but now we evidently had something to worry about. We were sure to be next. Everything seemed so haphazard yet at the same time there was a noticeable church connection. No. Some one informed us they knew of some fellow citizens who had evaporated with out a trace who never went to church. On Sundays they went to nursing homes or prisons to do things for the nursing home residents or prisoners. (In some cases they were one and the same!)

One Monday men in uniform came to my workplace, handcuffed a couple of co-workers and hauled them off. As they passed my desk they looked...proud. I couldn't meet their eyes for fear their guards would pull me along with them. I heard mention that they had been seen working a homeless shelter on weekends by some of the office staff. They were nice people. I never heard them swear, steal or drink. I could think of absolutely no crime they could possibly have committed to result in being incarcerated. Surely feeding the homeless wasn't an offence?

Then one day as chance would have it, as I was out shopping I ran into an old sorority sister of mine. She just happened to be wearing a police uniform. This was my chance. I caught her on her lunch break and we had some catching up to do! I spent thirty minutes discussing things that meant nothing to me, that bored me actually, till I got the nerve up to mention the bizarre activities going on in the country that seemed to be besieging the cities church populace. People going missing, whole families going missing, with no information in the papers. I asked her as casually as I could, hopefully I didn’t raise any alarms, why the church was being targeted for extermination.

“That’s silly. The church isn’t being exterminated. It’s the Christians that are in danger!” My friend explained to me.“Christians, church people, what’s the difference?” I asked, baffled“ Oh, come on. I know lot’s of church people who aren’t Christians. I party hearty with some of them. Most church people are just fillers.”“Fillers?”“Yea, they go to church just to fill a pew, but there’s not enough evidence to prove they’re Christians.”“So, then, why are the Christians being arrested?”My friend started to squirm just a little. “Hey, tell me you’re not a Christian. I’d hate to have to arrest you”“Don’t be silly,” I lied. “I’m one of the guys you’ve partied hearty with!” I laughed hoping to conceal my nervousness."Well, it's true, we are pulling Christians in and imprisoning them for treason.” she informed me. “Treason! That’s absurd. What is that suppose to mean?”“Well, they’re preaching about a kingdom not of this world. That subverts the preeminence of this Country’s values. We don’t recognize dual citizenship.”“What’s going to happen to them?”My friend looked over her shoulder and leaned forward to get closer to my ear.

“You mean ‘what’s happened to them’…I could get in trouble for leaking this out, but they are being systematically ….” lowering her voice even more…”executed.”

I repressed a gasp. Thank heaven’s there wasn’t enough evidence to convict me. I’ve kept my nose clean by and walked on both sides of the fence. I left that lunch date relieved. I apparently had nothing to worry about.

Math 5:10
Math 10:33
Math 13:21
acts 8:1
Romans 12:2
Eph. 2:19*Phil. 3:20
1 Thes 1:6