Elsewhere...

 "Your old men will dream dreams". Joel 2:28.

I want to share a passage from a book I'm currently reading at the moment. Many of us have been without church in the way we knew it for a long time now, and I think this excerpt certainly touches on something that we need to ponder as that manner of 'distance' still continues in various ways.

"We host worship on Sundays - but not every week. We take off some weeks because we need time off or because we want to join someone else for their gathering...

One Sunday, I asked all the staff members to choose a church in the city to visit. We all made a list of churches with good reputations and we each took one. My hope was that we would learn something from the experience... that each would bring back something to strengthen or even correct our own work.

The church I chose was pretty big... As I joined the throng of people making their way in, I felt a glowing excitement... I had this unmistakable feeling of expectation... that walk triggered memories of when I was a kid. I had the feeling that something important was going to happen.

The sense was beautiful as it was fleeting.

The place was sprawling. Not one person talked to me. I sat too far from the front to feel any connection to anyone 'on stage'. What I witnessed felt contrived and lifeless. People were sure trying to make it something - the incongruence between the indomitable smiles of the worship teaming the lifeless worshippers was hard to reconcile. I am sure they were genuine people but... not one bit of it seemed real to me.

We were then subject to a sermon before the sermon - on offerings - but I still had hopes for the sermon, which was fine. Solid. 

Still, in the end, my experience fell far short of my yearning.

(Brian Sanders - Underground Church).

This week over on his 1517 "talks" video, Dr Rod Rosenbladt spoke of how he recalls a particular parishioner who would arrive at the exact same moment for Sunday morning service - just before confession, absolution, and the Lord's Supper, and would leave straight after. Rod went on to note that he genuinely understood where the man was coming from - he needed Christ, His sins forgiven, and that was why he needed to attend - and that was that.

Brian goes on to note that his own experience before starting a church focused on fully participant ministry was one of managing disappointment.

After the last twelve months, I must confess that I too understand both the need and the attitude of the one who 'stands at the edge' to meet with God, because as Brian (founder of a network of mission churches where all members are encouraged to be using their gifts in full time service) notes above, the goal and experience of 'church' can so easily become detached from its true purpose, especially, as in our case, when that manner of detachment has become so total.

The real problem at the moment in what's happened is that due to our conformity, there just isn't room for a "Jesus in the wheat field" in our activities.

You recall the incident?

It was a sabbath, and Jesus and His disciples were enjoying a 'holy' walk across a wheat field, when, in a leisurely fashion, some of them began to pull ears of corn and enjoy eating them. The 'teachers of the law' (who were so infuriated with this "teacher" that they had taken to following Him pretty much everywhere), pounced on the action - "there! these men are breaking sabbath law, 'working' on the day - see, He and His have no respect for God's truth'.

Jesus quickly and easily puts them in their place, recalling an incident from the life of David, but do you see what happened there? ANY transgression of what was deemed pious and thereby required was to be repudiated and admonished without clemency. The law is relentless.

Where would such a Jesus be in our churches right now? Would He equally be condemned if He in effect showed us the limits, the trouble, with restrictions and rules that keep us far more than arms length from one another, that close the mouths of little ones from singing, and make us a people marked by fear and not love?

It's interesting to note that it was as Deitrich Bonehoffer pondered the clashes that Jesus had with the teachers of law on the Sabbath that he found the ethical framework required to allow him to actively resist the Nazis and later to engage in the work to eliminate Hitler.

There are times when the church finds itself drawn by God into a wilderness so it can be tested, purified and allured into a deeper experience of union.

Genuine worship. Genuine Confession and Absolution. Genuine Proclamation of the magnificence of God's reconciling work in Christ. Genuine Participation by feeding on Christ's flesh and blood in the Supper. These are what should define us, always, as God's purchased and cherished people. Nothing more, nothing less.