These people make a big show of
saying the right thing,
but
their hearts aren't in it.
Because they act like they're
worshiping me
but
don't mean it,
I'm going to step in and shock
them awake,
astonish
them, stand them on their ears.
The wise ones who had it all
figured out
will
be exposed as fools.
The smart people who thought
they knew everything
will
turn out to know nothing.
(Isaiah 29:13-14, The Message)
.Every Sunday for a year I have
run away from home and
joined the circus
as a dancing bear. We dancing bears
have
dressed ourselves in buttoned
clothes; we mince
around the rings on two feet. Today we were restless;
we
kept dropping ont our forepaws... A high school stage
play is more
polished than this service we have been
rehearsing since the year one.
In two thousand years,
we have not worked out the
kinks...week after
week,
we witness
the same miracle: that God is so mighty he
can stifle
his own laughter. Week after week, that God,
for reasons
untathomable,
refrains from blowing our
dancing bear act to
smithereens. Week after
week Christ
washes the disciples' dirty
feet, handles their very toes,
and
repeats, It is all right--believe it or not--to be people.
Who can
believe it?"
-- Annie Dillard, Teaching a
Stone To Talk
Going through
the motions doesn't please you,
a flawless
performance is nothing to you.
I learned God-worship
when my
pride was shattered.
Heart-shattered lives ready for love
don't for a
moment escape God's notice.
. (Psalm 51:16-17, The
Message)
For
thou delightest not in sacrifice; else would I give it:
Thou
hast no pleasure in burnt-offering. The sacrifices
of
God are a broken spirit: A broken and contrite heart,
O God,
thou wilt not despise. (Psalm
51:16-17, NASB)
It really is shocking to
me how often we Christ-followers miss the main idea of church -- we can
have a relationship with God and he loves us enough to interact with us
no matter how undeserving we are. We tend to do all we can to turn it
from something that God does with us to something that we do for God,
or sometimes, something we do to others to show how 'Christian' we are.
We are creatures of 'things' and 'actions' and as such we're far more
comfortable with doing stuff than being something new. That's why I
think we condense our faith into things to do or not do and rituals
(every church has them, even the churches who market themselves are
being contemporary and unchurchy) instead of really focusing on loving
on God and being loved by him and sharing that love with others as we
seek to follow his ways.
"In
this dichotomy you have the essence of our religion
—
Catholic, Protestant, or otherwise — in a nutshell:
the
clergy are paid to give and the 'laymen'
pay in order to
receive."
from Christian Counter Culture online
For
me, this has to be one of the most frustrating things about the church
as I've always known it, this dividing people up into clergy (or even
professional denominational workers) and laity (or "consumers"), and
then expecting each to meet different models of "behavior" instead of
realizing that they're all the same.
As my pastor
and I were
talking the other day we both brought up the point that the church
model we use today isn't based even loosely on the New Testament. It
comes from Constantine. It comes not from a fellowship of like-minded
believers hanging onto their faith in a time of persecution. It comes
from the politically powerful, suddenly safe, no longer under siege,
watchdogs of morality that became institutionalized.
That's
why
I think Christianity is growing so quickly in other countries and is so
insanely stale here in a so-called Christian nation. Because it hasn't
been turned into
an institution. It's still just people. If you want to kill the spread
of Christianity, give it power and structure and the authority to
enforce something (morality), not just dispense something (grace).
Okay,
rant over.