Well, I wrote this the other day sitting in the church I attend. I did choose that word (attend) very carefully. I have basically went to only 2 churches my whole life, and now, not real sure where to land, or how to engage, or if I even should. So I am what I have hated, a ‘pew-sitter’. But maybe that is okay for this time in my life. I feel like I am kind of in a ‘greenhouse’ period in my life, being exposed to certain things, but mostly protected from the ‘elements’ outdoors. I am just a seedling right now, have been beaten nearly to death by hail, lightning and fire, that all came through ‘nice’ words and smiles (BTW, dont get me started on that!!! save that for a later post). Okay, so Im rambling again. I wrote this while sitting in church maybe 1 month ago, and ‘listening’ to the sermon. I titled it ‘What I Want from a Church’, but have recently realized that I have much more to add. But here it is, as I wrote it, unedited. Would love to hear comments. Thanks, Geo!!!
What I want from a church
The gospel is ‘good news’ only if you factor in God. Without this God, it is foolishness, it is stupid, it is death.
To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. – 2 Cor. 2:16
For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing – 2 Cor. 1:18
I want to hear more of the ‘foolish things’, more of the things that I can’t hear anywhere else. If I am going to have a ‘transformation fo the mind’, I need to hear the things that are not good ideas, good advise, wise sayings or abstract truths that pretty much everyone can agree on. I dont need to hear common sense. I need to hear the things that I could never hear on the Oprah Winfrey Show, that I could never hear said by Dr. Phil. I need to hear the things that the world could never even think of saying, things that their own ‘common sense’ would say is absolutely foolish. I dont need the church to tell me to ‘make the most of my life’. I dont need the church to tell me that. I dont need to leave my house early on a Sunday morning to hear that said. I can rent a good movie and watch it Saturday night for that. I am not saying that these sort of things are not true. I believe that the world does posses some truth, because I believe the Holy Spirit is at work in this world and God has hidden His truth throughout His universe. As a christian, I may share some of these truths with the world, but I dont need those sort of things from the church. No, I need the church to help form in me the things that the world would think is foolish, that they would call death. Those are the things that I have a hard time understanding and believing, much less living. Those are the things I more than likely at first hearing, will call foolish, impossible, unthinkable, or deadly… if there was not God, our loving Father, if there was not the Holy Spirit, already working ahead of me in the world and also working in the deepest places in my heart. I need to hear the things that would make no sense at all to me, and that I would quickly disregard, if it werent for Jesus, the one who saved me and taught, lived and demonstrated the way to live, the way to life, the way to God.
We must remember that the state does not randomly execute you. We must remember that the religious institutions do not haphazardly hate and accuse you. We must remember that the masses who were just last week singing your praises and chanting your name, dont just casually now all leave you, spit on you, and even call for your death. We must remember that your friends, the ones who have been the closest to you, shared their whole lives with you, these friends whom you have given to and received from, dont just unintelligibly all of a sudden leave you, some running away naked, some slipping away in the dark, and others just standing there watching, disavowing violently, repeatedly any past history that you shared. No, we must remember that these things dont just happen because you taught and said nice, easily understood platitues and common sense. No, the life and teachings of Jesus are foolish. The cross is foolishness to the greeks, and pretty much everyone else.
This, this is what I need from a church, the cross, and what that would mean today, in this state, in this world. Because I have been charged to take up my cross and follow Jesus, and that is not just some simple sentimental way of saying ‘whatever hardship I may be facing’ at the time. No, this cross is my way of life, my way to life. This way of life got our leader, our saviour killed, executed by the governement. That is the way Ive been called to go, that is the way I cannot walk by myself, and would never ever think of or come to on my own. Those are the things that without a church, I am left to just sleep and drift in this world. And if I struggle at all, I am left to struggle for what the world sells and tells me is right, good and true. And those things, however good they may appear… are death.
There is a way that seems right to a man…
but in the end it only leads to death.
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