So, here we are beginning the final quarter of my Lenten discipline. There have been highs and lows so far, but I hope that you, my reader, have found my thoughts encouraging, funny, and perhaps a little thought provoking at times. Today Mary told me that someone told her that they read my blog and said that I was 'gutsy.' I like the concept, even if I don't necessarily agree with the evaluation. I only set out to say something, and sometimes what I have to say is a little fringe like, but I don't set out to be controversial or courageous. If you knew the amount of posts I write and never publish, if you knew the content of them, you would realize that there are at least as many times I walk away from possible confrontations as the times that I rush headlong into them.
You see, there are a multitude of issues that I would love to write about and share, topics that I believe the church has missed the boat on, or at the very, least topics that we are languishing on. I had a conversation with someone not too long ago when we collectively decided that the church as a whole is roughly 50 years behind the culture. Some of you may be thinking that it is a good thing, but that is not how either of us meant it. When I say that we are 50 years behind I am saying that our culture is ahead of us morally from time to time, or at least segments of the population are.
I tend to think that we are so far behind on certain issues because of a mixture of being comfortable and being fearful. We know where we are, we like the surroundings, and we like the people we surround our churches with. We know what we need to do to accomplish the same things we have been accomplishing, and the amount of people who no longer grace our doors with their presence doesn't concern us nearly as much as it should. When certain historians and theologians start tossing out words like post-Christian perhaps it is time that we redefine what it means to be Christian in this day and this age, not vilify those Christians who are on the fringe.
There is a song by Relient K named Down in Flames that contains the lyrics 'We're cannibals, we watch our brothers fall, we eat our own, the bones and all.' And to be honest I don't know if truer words exist when we are discussing the attitude of the 21st Century American Church and its way of business with anyone who begins to question the status quo. As I mentioned a paragraph before, I feel that we do this because of fear. Fear that our power will wane. Fear that our big money donors might go to a different church. Fear that we'll lose our jobs or our status. Fear that if we let them in everything will start to crumble and fall.
Let me tell you something, if we're being honest, really honest, we're already crumbling and falling. We're already losing people to other churches for reasons as silly as the color of the carpet and the amount of praise songs vs. hymns we sing on a Sunday morning. We're already losing our power and our status because of the length of a sermon or the push for a tithe. Maybe it's time that we start losing people for things that count eternally. Maybe we should start losing our power and our status for the sake of love, mercy, grace, forgiveness. It drove Jesus to a cross, it drove MLK Jr. to a balcony, it drove Mother Teresa to skid row, where will it drive you? me? us?
I don't have all the answers for the church, I find it hard enough to find answers for myself sometimes. But maybe where we can start is with a Tabula Rasa, a new Blank Slate, where we stop trying to do church like we've been doing church for the past 20,200 or even 2000 years and start trying to figure out what Jesus needs for us to do today. It may mean we have to change everything, some have suggested that, but maybe if we start doing most of the things we already do better, then we will see change, in our pews, in our hearts, in our lives.
It's funny, I set out to convince you I am not gutsy, and instead have opened myself to wondering if I am.
Peace and Love,
Pastor K
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