You Need A New Muffler

There’s a kind of one stop shopping area that I pass on my way to and from one of the sites that I’m working with in the Bronx when I’m on the bus. On one side of the block there’s a big sign for a “Redemption Center,” a place where people can bring their bottles and cans that have deposits, and on the other there’s a car repair place that has signs for new mufflers. Smack in the middle of the two is a “Ministerio De Reconciliacion,” and even if you don’t know Spanish, the English and Spanish are nearly identical. It’s a church, a Ministry of Reconciliation, and it also has another sign on the side closest to the Redemption Center that says, “Centro de Alabanza,” which can be loosely translated to Worship Center, but Alabanza really means so much more. It’s the highest praise, it’s saying, “Glory and honor and power to Him who sits on the throne!” (Revelation 5:13) It's worship that is sung in adoration to glorify and honor God. It’s an outpouring of a heart that has been redeemed.

I love seeing those buildings all together like that. I have a kind of fantasy that they’re all owned by the same person. You can drop your car off to get a new muffler and whatever other overhaul it needs, then go to the Redemption Center to redeem your cans and bottles and then to the Ministerio De Reconciliacion to get yourself redeemed. I also love it that they’re all together because everyone who has been born again is part of the Ministry of Reconciliation. We have been called by God to help show the way to His blessing and grace, much in the way a good mechanic would look at your car and show you the way to fix it. You might not be able to fix it yourself, but the mechanic can take a look and let you know what you need. Anyone in the Ministry of Reconciliation can do that for any one else. When we see that someone is as lost as we once were we can point the way to healing because we've been there ourselves.

When I was little there was a family joke that I don’t know how it got started, but it went on for as long as I can remember and we still laugh about it now. For some reason whenever you’d be out and you’d hear some noise in your car, or in someone else’s, you’d say, “You need a new muffler.” I don’t know why, but my brother used to say that all the time and it always cracked us all up. Maybe it was just the way he said it, or maybe there was a long ago now forgotten way that it got started, but whatever or whoever or however it started, it’s something that any of us can say to anyone else about anything – it doesn’t have to be about a car any more – if there’s any question about anything all we need to do is say, “You need a new muffler,” and we’ll all crack up.

So of course when I saw that Ministry of Reconciliation and the muffler store and the redemption center all in one, it made such perfect and logical sense to me that they must all somehow be part of the same whole. Whatever may be bothering you, you need a new muffler, and of course that’s ludicrous, but maybe if I just start there I’ll find my way to the Redemption Center and then finally walk next door into the doors of the Centro De Alabanza and know I’ve finally found my way home. Maybe if I just accept that I need that new muffler, if I start to see that everything is not as perfect in my life as I’d like to pretend, maybe, just maybe, I can find a way to open my heart up to be reconciled to God.

Blessings,

Jannie Susan