It Is What It Isn't

Christianity obviously suffers from a lot of things. I know. I'm in it. I've even contributed to it, but I think that one of the most frustrating things about Christianity is that each generation expects they've reached the end of what faith and Christiainity is. Faith can't change beyond what we know. So if I think church is broken, obviously it's a spiritual issue of obedience that I'm dealing with.

But really?

Is it?

Or is it that people continuously change the way they interact with the world? Is the model of the fifties and sixties church just not effective anymore? Was church broken before that, and we just found out now? Maybe we've been trained to think that today's idea of a formalized church is something to be pursued. It kind of reminds me a little of the beginning of the Reformation.

Martin Luther decided that the Roman Catholic Church was wrong when they said you could pay to get your sins taken away, so he nails these 95 theses to a church's door essentially saying, your model of doing things is corrupt and broken.

People like Tyndale and Wycliffe changed the way everybody interacted with the Bible after centuries of only a select few with the proper education being able to read it...because the system was broken. And still we think that if we shake the worm eaten pillars of the modern church, we're heretics...but weren't the founders of the Reformation? Wasn't Paul a heretic? And Peter? And James? The problem is that we hold tight to opinions while the rafters fall all about us. Church should be in a building, there needs to be a sermon and singing. What about the community? Well, obviously we need to tack on small groups to our programming. That way people experience true community.

But what if it's wrong? What if it's wrong to spend more money on matching our carpets to our pews than to help the needy? What if it's wrong to pay the church's heating bill when we have twelve people in our "congregation" without the means to pay their own heating bills? What if the argument isn't should we sing hymns or the newest praise choruses, but how can we actually love our neighbors? How can we move from the idea of traditional church to the idea of effective Christian community?

I think the heart of the problem is that the majority of us have stopped inventing. We've grown comfortable with the way church is and so church has stagnated. The status quo is sufficient. Punching our spiritual time cards on Sunday is a no effort exercise. And if that's enough, why explore what church should become. It is what it is, right?

But what if it isn't?

Skim milk, with it's condensation beaded around the edge of the glass, nothing like it my friends. Nothing like the ice cold wash of ice cold milk poured rushing down the gullet and swishing and swirling in the stomach. It's almost like heaven on a hot hot day...except, today is overcast and 54.

I'm dying. Slowly but surely, I'll be dead. As far as I know, I'm not dying any faster than anyone else. I don't have any terminal diseases that I know of. I've been told that genetically, my heart may not be the best, but beyond that, I'm the spitting image of health's younger brother. And yet, the fact remains...that I'm dying. Slowly by slowly. Inch by cautious inch my skin is folding, collapsing in on itself. Soon enough my muscles will sag and turn flabby, my jowls will dip, my hair will turn on it's neon vacancy sign and I'll be dead. And we all will.

This isn't news. You wont see "We Are All Dying" as a New York Times headline. We know it. But we ignore it. Because it's easier to live when you aren't going to die. It's easier to believe the string of life will last forever. But life is never real until that string is cut, until it ends. When we realize how short life is, it becomes important. It matters. There's meaning to it.