You’ve got me thinking, you and your comments and blog posts and yesterday’s lectionary readings about vines and pruning! Over at Abbotsford Roddy has, as usual, been mixing insightfull questions with fabulous liturgy. All of this led to a sermon yesterday that was a bit of a half formed thought. So I’m going to ty to finish the thought here…
Roddy’s question was simple, yet our answers to it reveal something fundemental about what we already know about church and how it should be. He asked:
‘If I were to start a new church it would…’.
Think about that question for a moment. How would you answer it? I we were to wipe the slate clean and start afresh what would church look like? How would it be? What principles would it be founded on? What would we miss out?
What struck me yesterday as I was preaching my sermon was that we already know what church should be.
Our answers to that simple question reveal that. So I’d like to ask another question:
Why do we allow church to be all the things we know it shouldn’t be?
Hmm,
Interesting question. I’m not convinced “we already know what church should be”. If that’s about infrastructure, then we clearly don’t. We’ve got some ideas, we’ve tried a few things. We’re learning to love each other in the midst of whatever expression of fellowship/gathering/community we are part of.
I also get this impression that there’s a subtle distinction between “younglings” and “the mature” – the latter being ones who Paul encouraged as those who seek out “a secret & hidden wisdom”. This is not a secret club, but an expression of our deepening levels of intimacy with God though relationship.
We get deeper with God by spending time with Him (alone), with Him (though others) and by sharing Him (as we live). So the Church is about that. Being built together as we share our lives (warts, calluses and all).
To get to the point and answer your question – we make church into the things we do because often we put our needs first. we miss the opportunity to prefer one another in love and we can get sidetracked by forgetting to love from our place of brokenness and allow others to love us as best they can. Oh, that an judging each other!
Great Question, SC