What We Lost in the Fire

Tis really a requiem for those verdant hippy days of yore 

So - do you remember the 80's? Do you remember the 80's in the United Church? Oh those heady days when we were clearly the largest protestant denomination in Canada and quite a lot of people still went to church. 

I was younger then, and easily influenced, and as a teenager joined the church - my family was not United Church and yet - for me - it was everything. 

I was a kid who wanted to change the world. I joined Greenpeace, I advocated for ecology, I did all those 80'ish type things. 

And each and every year the United Church came out with a powerful position on world events - and mission themes to go with them.

It was the United Church that made me aware of South Africa and Apartheid. It was because of them that I read the book BIKO and became an advocate. 

And that was true of women in ministry, of LGBTQ++ rights, or Palestine... of so many things. 

You see, I have been spending an inordinate amount of time lately thinking about why the church exists. 

I work in a small congregation where there are few people and few resources. I also minister to a huge university where there are thousands of people and little desire. Both things serve as a sort of crucible of thought - allowing me to ask specific questions of myself and others in comparison to entirely different cultural and social realities.  

Or to make that entire paragraph into a simple sentence - I get to ask why old people and young people do not come to church. 

And I really think the idea is tied up in the "what good do we do?" question.

There seems to be a trend lately to pretend that what we do is saving souls. I think this started because people in mainline churches were thinking evangelical churches were still in good shape because of this emphasis. This is entirely incorrect - evangelical congregations attract a mere 2% of Canadians while the United Church can still claim around 6% (the Catholics were at 38% or they were before this latest round of scandal)

But you know when people really paid attention to the United Church? When we advocated for social issues. We were the people the government of Canada consulted with around Gay Marriage. You know why? We had a history of standing up for, fighting for, and developing new ways of seeing those said underdogs.

We were LGBTQ++ before it was cool. We ordained women before women were seen as equals. We stood for something Jesus liked to call the Kingdom of Heaven... or as we might say it now, making things right here on Earth.

You know what truly does not matter to most people, or to the world, or even to God? Whether or not you accept Jesus as Christ and your personal saviour. Whether or not you believe in God or call God father, sister, mother, brother. Whether you believe in the Trinity and virgin birth... or whether you have been saved - whatever that means...

When people worshiped Jesus in his own day and age he kept saying, Cut that out. I am no one. I am just trying to point the way.

And when people said, ok, what is the way? Jesus said - love everyone, love yourself, love God, take care of widows and orphans, don't lie cheat or steal, etc. etc. etc.

JESUS' WAY WAS SOCIAL JUSTICE

And when we concentrated on what Jesus cared about - people cared about us. We were a player on the world stage.

Now our concern is about doctrine and thought policing, about saving souls and things we did not care about in our heyday.

Why is no one seeing the correlation?