(as an aside - my brain is constantly at work - but I have to admit that is often because of the conversations I have with many people wiser and more experienced than myself - some of the impetus of my thoughts comes from them - but I do not tell you "Dave said this" because I want to be fully responsible for the upset and ire my blogs create. But I am humbly grateful for those who share their deeper thinking with me)
I am not talking about Jesus.
I am not talking about us.
I am talking about the general philosophical principle that in reality was once the centrepoint of our theology. Things die - things are reborn.
It is at the very beginning of the Bible for God's sake - we get kicked out of the garden and have to start over. The world floods and we have to start over. The prophets are replaced by a monarchy. Deportation and Exile to rebuilding and restoring... Our history, whether written or experienced is one of the old ways dying and the new ways emerging.
To be fair - this often does not go as well as we might hope... just ask Martin Luther - whether you are talking about the medieval or the modern one. When we stand up and admit things have to die, no one wants to hear it. (For that matter, ask Jesus...)
And this is where we find ourselves.
The prophetic voices in the midst of most congregations stand up and say this is a failing enterprise. There are those who admit that our resources are almost depleted and the doors will soon close. And often they are told to hush... that negativity will not win the day... that we should focus on what we have... or some variation of the type of thinking that I fear got us into this mess in the first place.
"What can we do to bring people back into the church" has become our sacred mantra. We invent program, services, music, and outreach based on our belief that the way we do things is not only right but has more meaning than the rest of the world understands.
And I wonder - does all of this mean that we, at our core, do not believe the central tenet of death and resurrection.
See, the whole story of Jesus dying and coming back from the grave on Easter morning was never meant to be about one person - or about supernatural powers - or about heaven... Instead, it was meant to be the philosophical underpinning of kingdom thinking.
Everything Dies - Something New Rises Up
We should all get tattoos of that phrase. We should be required to say it as a mantra. We should come to understand that when Jesus taught us to pray that things on earth would be more like things in heaven - this is what he meant - that we would be able to see that life leads to death leads to resurrection.
And again - it is not about me. It is not about getting into heaven. It is about seeing that everything has a time and place, energy and enthusiasm, an impact and meaning - AND THEN IT DIES.
It is only then that something else comes along to continue on in a different form.
Imagine if this really was our core belief. Imagine if I could say that the people in imaginaryville built this church when the town was founded to give a sense of community and purpose and holiness to the endeavour of creating a town - but that work is finished, it has lived its life, and it is time to die... Let's burn the church and figure out what comes next.
Look around - the modern world does not find meaning in the things it once did. People have changed so quickly and dramatically - the traditional church will not ever come back to life - it has served its purpose....
Now people find meaning in nature. They find meaning in art. They find meaning in online social arguments. They find meaning in the "religious" experiences of a rock concert, or a party, or even a vacation to Disney.
If our goal is to see the Kingdom of Heaven become an accepted reality, why are we holding on to a "kingdom" that was never of heaven and no longer exists? Why are we not looking at the real world and real experiences and saying - how do we find holiness, spirituality, sanctuary, nirvana - however you want to define those thin moments - in the actual day to day reality we face.
What would it be like if we believed that it is possible the local church needs to die in order for something to be reborn from the ashes.
After all - aren't we all about celebrating resurrection?
There's a lot to be said for just experiencing the Dark Night of the Soul. Letting it all go is not impossible. We've been indoctrinated with Bible stories from early childhood - before we could think objectively so it's all down there n our subconscious and hard to root out. But the Bible is just a book - a history of the Jewish people told with reference to their God. A pretty good god compared to others at the time. At least ours was ethical and even gave out commandments. It was the only tradition that could have produced Jesus - the essence of Goodness. But we really have to toss it all. Except the ethics. That's vital. But let us live in the darkness for a time, expecting nothing. Clinging to nothing. It's a Buddhist thing. Sitting in stillness, we'll see in time that the emptiness is a womb. Pregnant with possibilities.
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