Last time I wrote about the need for churches to keep a “prophetic distance” from government and politicians. But that may not even scratch the surface of what churches need, and need to do. Continue reading at your own risk.
Sometime back there was a picture of an emaciated six month old Somalian baby on the front page of the Minneapolis Star Tribune. He looked like bones with skin draped over his tiny body. Even thinking about him now brings tears to my eyes. But this child is one among millions. Estimates are that as many as a million children die of starvation and related diseases every year. But the problem of poverty is not just in Somalia, the Sudan, or India. In the America of today the number of families falling under the government’s poverty line is increasing, more children go to school malnourished than a decade ago, and senior citizens are being forced to choose between food and medicine when they get up in the morning. Now that we have the Sequester, which is a fancy word for “orphaned injustice,” the situation is worsening by the week.
I wonder how many churches in recent weeks have raised a voice against the Sequester? How many of them have spoken in outrage about the Congress and the President moving with haste to find monies to stop airport slowdowns while offering nothing to stop cutbacks in Meals on Wheels and Head Start programs across the country? How many churches do you suppose heard their minister criticize efforts to force the Army to build tanks it doesn’t need or want while children and the elderly get hurt and unemployment benefits run out for thousands of families?
Never mind the flags in sanctuaries. How about American prosperity and consumerism deafening churches to the gospel’s truth to the point where American Christians believe it acceptable to have a rich church in a poor world and still claim to follow the one who had nowhere to lay his head. Will there ever be a point where our hypocrisy makes us sick to our collective stomachs? Will we ever put sitting in comfortable sanctuaries singing songs of praise, listening to sermons about self-realization and maximizing your potential, attending a Sunday School class that assures you that Jesus died for your sins and you now have a place in heaven – will we ever put all of this in the context of a million children dying every year because they don’t have food and clean water and see how absurd it all is?
I ask these questions because I have been a leader in the church my entire adult life. My hands are as dirty as anyone else’s when it comes to talking better about living a life pleasing to God than actually doing it. Each day my life is one big inconsistency. The most I can say for myself is that forty years ago I believed the goal in ministry was to work hard so I could get to a big steeple church and enjoy the life and prestige that affords a minister. Today that thought makes me weep for a church that is more American than Christian and, as a result, has lost its soul.
I am tempted to quit church, of course, and there are more than a few who would tell me not to let the door hit me you know where as I leave. But I love the church too much to say nothing or leave it in the hands of those who are satisfied with the status quo. I also believe that if I can use the very good life I have in any way that lets even one child or family know they have not been forgotten, that their lives matter as much as my own, that I at least see the injustice inherent in the life I have compared to theirs, then perhaps, as the old spiritual says, my living will not be in vain. And I believe the same thing about churches. It sounds selfish, of course, to want to help someone else in order to have meaning in your own life, and that of the church’s. Perhaps the desire for redemption is selfish?
Whether it is or not, the need for redemption is real, and may be bigger than we think. The soul of America itself may be hanging in the balance. From where I sit what is going on in D.C. these days suggests our political leaders are lost – in every sense of the word. Their hope, whether they realize it or not, is for the people of this country to lead them back, back to basic human decency, back to the notion of neighborhood, back to a sense of one for all and all for one, back to a commitment to the common good, back to a concern for genuine liberty and justice for all. And given who I am I believe people, whether they realize or not, need for churches to lead the way. The question is, will they? Or more basic, are they so lost that they see no need to do so?
linnposts.com 
jan,
i always say that if not for COS, I would likely be unchurched and end up in yoga class on sunday mornings…
there something about sticking in the fight that is good and noble and right.
don’t let that door hit you in your……
dixcy
I love your honest and thought-provoking blogs. Keep it up.
I have long thought that the desire for redemption and a spot in heaven is VERY selfish. I have seen a lot of that, which has made me very skeptical, especially about our current love affair with big, entertainment type churches.
Sorry Jan, but I think you are looking through BIG rose colored glasses when you say those in Wash DC are looking for someone to lead them out of their swamp. I think they are having a good old time, playing in the mud!
I absolutely agree with you. Unless the church incarnates love and compassion (feel with) those who are hungry and homeless, the church is irrelevant. Actions speak louder than words.
It will be interesting as a culture of “easy believism: continues to trend toward “no particular believism” if the remnant can regain its soul. The remnant will need to gracefully deal with the albatross of all the huge mid-20th Century monuments of Christendom that have high overhead and little pay off.
The road to spiritual maturity is a very long one, no matter who the teacher is; including the Nazarene. I think Jesus was trying to teach His disciples something profoundly new when He asked them ” who do you say I am”. Peter’s response, “you are the Christ, son of the living God” was followed by Jesus’ saying, “this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven…….and upon this rock I will build my church.” This “rock” is spirit to spirit communication; the spirit of God to the souls of men. The “church” in that context is actually “spiritual brotherhood”; nothing at all physical! Once this expansive, inclusive and eternal interpretation is grasped from the teacher of “the way”, rather than that of our strictly corporeal lens, especially by the church, then it will become relevant and we all can begin to build life on earth as it is in heaven. We need to supplant atonement with attunement! Two thousand plus years later I think we’re still thousands of years away!
Thanks Jan! I too struggle with my faith in action. Too often the important get pushed aside for those other things -so what could be done to give life to the hungering goes undone. To complicate matters we confuse religious culture with authentic faith. This week I was reminded how complicated life is. My second son reminded me that it is difficult to reason with people who are emotionally vested with their own idea. I am amazed that some people will listen only to those who agree and think the same way they do -prejudice included.
Another difficulty facing the church is when we try to relate to people of another culture; and they do live among us. I sometimes call them grand-children or the younger generation. Their music, dress, videos and life style are a threat to many.
Well, enough said. I would hope we would start by overcoming our judgmental attitude, our fears and just give evidence of a life giving example. The way we do life can affirm and model Good News and Hope so desperately needed in our world today. Remember, light over comes darkness – if only I could remember what and where the matches are.