Attending church this Sunday, I was struck once again by the different approaches and understandings as to what we're doing there, who are we, and why do we gather?
For many, the church is something akin to the Lion's Club or some other kind of civic organization. For many American Christians, it's 'Mom, Apple Pie, and Church' and we see this in the rabid popularity of all the t-shirts and bumper stickers tying in flag with cross, standing and kneeling, and of course we must not forget the culture's holy men - the troops. Church for these people is but another aspect of cultural existence and in many ways it simply grounds (in some kind of nebulous transcendent way) the other elements of culture they venerate. If they're Christians at all, it's in spite of these 'churches' of which they are a part.
Since the meeting is not necessarily anything supernatural, there's little thought given to reverence. People talk and walk around while Scripture is read. Prayer is a good time for 'set changes' - someone to walk up to the podium, sit at the piano, get up to go to the bathroom, or whatever.
I find it incredibly ironic that the greeter who keeps a permanent spot by the door will often chat away with late arrivals while the service is underway. It can be disruptive as he's obviously hard of hearing and doesn't realize how loud he is. He's a nice older man that no one wants to offend, but his extended high-volume conversations are disruptive and frankly offensive in that they disturb the meeting, the reading of Scripture, and prayer - and thus constitute a form of sacrilege. I cannot fathom why the church leaders won't address this.
This even continued during the pastoral prayer which was particularly ironic as he was being prayed for - due to familial health-related struggles. He didn't hear it because he was busy talking. And as is so often the case, some of these greeter-types are men that can't sit down or sit still without falling asleep and so they wander about - rarely sitting in on the meeting itself. This isn't some kind of security thing. This is just restlessness. They want to be there, may feel some kind of drive or need to be, but clearly do not understand what it's all about. They shake hands, tell stories, gripe about politics and the economy - and head for home.*
They think of the Church as a kind of voluntary association, a place for fellowship and encouragement. These things may be true enough but they (at best) scratch the surface and are not even the primary reasons or identifiers of what constitutes the gathering of the Church. The voluntary association as just mentioned often functions as a kind of club membership - come when you feel like it or must, as opposed to an conscientious identity apart from and opposed to the world. Fellowship is understood as friendly (and often completely mundane) conversation as opposed to spiritual communion. And encouragement is all too often gauged by whether it makes you 'feel good' as opposed to being connected to God-ordained means and Spirit-wrought affections, which may in fact not always lead to a boost in self-esteem and confidence, but rather conviction and a renewed sense of purpose and determination.
The Church is not a place where Heaven and Earth meet, where grace is dispensed, where we stand in the Council Presence of the Throne of God, where we offer praise with the heavenly host, where we hear the oracles of God and partake of heavenly tokens - the Word manifest and present by the operation of the Holy Spirit. It's not a setting where the Holy Spirit works in a way outside the context of the mundane. There is also no consciousness that the Church is a holy nation called out of the world. There is a line of delineation between our meeting and the world - the very secular community that so many come to Church seeking affirmation for. They don't know why they've come and yet because the Church panders to numbers, they are not challenged to change their thinking.
Sadly, the number of people who do understand something of this distinction tie it to the specifics of the building itself and the various trappings and accoutrements that tradition has brought into it. The door of the building marks the delineation, as opposed to the actual substance of what we're doing, as opposed to the presence and invocation of the Word. As such, the building becomes the 'holy' place and reverence is tied strictly to forms and traditions even while the substance is often buried beneath them.
For many American churchgoers the only supernatural or sacramental elements are tied to emotions stirred by pseudo-Christian pop music or patriotic expression. Everything else going on that doesn't stir passions or generate enthusiasm cannot be deemed of importance - the criterion being their own feelings and response.
The notion that the God-ordained sacraments possess objective content and this is efficacious by means of the Holy Spirit -whether or not we 'feel' it, is alien to them. It's not about what God is saying or giving to us but whether or not we feel anything when we receive it.
All of this represents a massive dereliction on the part of Church leadership. And it must be admitted that if this was taught in a more robust manner it would likely drive many away. But maybe not, maybe some would be stirred to think. It depends on how it's taught and whether people will actually turn to the Scriptures. The rapid growth of the High Church indicates some are thinking about these questions (which is a positive) even if their energies have been somewhat misdirected.
And then in the after service discussion it was very distressing today to hear the torrent of confusion regarding the Church's identity once again. The US has bombed Iran and so 'we' and 'us' was on everyone's lips - their essential identity being American. They ape the false teaching and epistemological framework they've been taught. The 'we' and 'us' should belong to the Church. America, its leaders, and its troops are 'them'. We don't pray for them in the sense of success or glory but for peace that we may lead quiet lives minding our own business. Whether it was justified or not to drop bombs - this is not something we should encourage, endorse, or be excited about.
It's all the more distressing to hear those praising Trump and his blasphemous invocation of God in the wake of the bombing. His equation of Christianity, America, and the military needs to be denounced by the Church as this destroys the Church's testimony in the world. But instead it's celebrated. Some are clearly euphoric. I feel like I'm living in the midst of some dystopian movie about the antichrist.
The fact that these leaders appear on television and brazenly speak like gangsters declaring who they're going 'whack' next is a disgrace - but the False Church loves it, because it loves the world and its ways and the pseudo-glory promised by their sword and coin dreams of Babel-power.
Others were excited that the Israeli's are using Narnia-rooted code names for their bombing operations. If Narnia and Aslan are Christian, then Netanyahu's invocation of Rising Lion and the like are blasphemous. Either way, it's all rot as non-believers cannot understand Lewis' symbolism or the Christian theology embedded in his stories. Was this an Israeli ploy directed at American Evangelicals? That's likely enough and they're so gullible as to fall for it. The people I encountered at church certainly did. I expect to hear more about this in coming days.
The big discussion was - will the Iranian's strike at American targets? There was no exploration as to why they might do that or why any of this is happening. It's simply - 'they're crazy' and when someone raised the fact that Trump says, "Now is the time for peace" after he unilaterally and without provocation bombed a sovereign country - most voices are quick to defend him and justify the statement despite its absurdity. No one of course would even dare to revisit the history and context of this whole conflict. Doing so might reveal that they're not crazy at all. It might reveal that what happened in 1979 was the direct result of American policies, meddling, and murder. Undoubtedly the entire history of US-Iran and Iran-Israel relations during the 1980's and 1990's has been long forgotten.
But this is what Church is all about - social hour and politics. We might as well have been at the Elks club, but it was worse than that. It's disconcerting to hear people I like and to some degree respect talk casually about mass destruction, cities being flattened, and large-scale death in flippant and even comical terms. I'm left looking at them wondering if they're believers. Are these people indwelt by the Holy Spirit? I remember a time in my life when I attended church and spewed such filth. I look back at that time and know full well just how lost and deceived I was. I tried not to groan when just a few minutes after the service ended I got cornered by a man who usually begins every encounter with, "I was watching FOX news...." This Sunday was no exception.
I countered with "Oh, you mean the FOX channel," which only made him pause for a moment. I couldn't wait to get out of there. So much for fellowship. So much for communion - which we had just taken. Can the Holy Sprit bring together such divergence into a unity? I honestly don't know.
At best, my only hope in such contexts is to plant a seed or two. I suppose I need to take the long view and hope that after years of established trust and character testimony, my words will carry some weight or at least give pause. Maybe they do now. I just don't know. Not only are all our values different, in the end it feels like we're not even members of the same religion.
It was a very disappointing day to say the least and once again I was struck by how many others would take in such settings and feel drawn to the High Church and the protection afforded by its liturgical format. In our case there was nothing too offensive from the pulpit but I can only imagine what was happening across America this Sunday.
And even with the protections of the High Church liturgical model, this doesn't mean the sermon can't go off the rails - or the discussion afterward. And at the end of the day, the model itself is not Scriptural. But people sense there's something wrong with how Church is being approached and how our culture has shaped the nature of its gatherings. In my case, the church I attend has no screens and nothing more than a piano. There's no gimmicky stuff at all but there's also no sense of what it means to be the Church of Jesus Christ nor what it means when the Church assembles for worship and communion.
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*As far as the roving security, we left a New Calvinist congregation for that reason - the guys walking around carrying guns. There were other issues, but that was kind of the final straw. I want nothing to do with such people. They clearly do not know Christ nor have any interest in his teachings. There are dangers to the modern Church and the threat of attackers, but the answer isn't to kill people. The real answer (connected to our calling) is one they find very offensive and categorically reject. Like the gospel and the Kingdom, it's foolishness to them.