Too Bad We Don't Believe this Whole Death and Resurrection Thing

(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?

The Simple Thing Martin Luther Got Wrong

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately.

I have also been talking a lot with friends, asking a lot of questions on social media, and generally making a nuisance of myself.

Part of that comes from my need to reinvent the wheel which is the church. 

I have been focussing on worship and the fact that it is not doing what I would hope it would - connect people to something greater. 

Out of that, there was an A-ha moment that has really brought on that good old cognitive dissonance where once hearing this everything has to change. 

I have to give credit where credit is due - so without outing anyone, this is not my idea, it was told to me by a friend in a discussion about church over some wonderful craft beer - and he told me it was a friend of his who had originally shared the idea.

Okay, enough beating around the bush. Martin Luther changed the church by saying the focus should be on the word of God - as written, as proclaimed, etc. Before that the focus was on the Eucharist - the literal presence of God in the elements of worship.

So we moved the altar back and the pulpit forward and the centre of worship became the readings and the sermon.

At first, it was novel and connected and we felt God's presence in a new way. But what really happened was that we had shifted away from the presence of God and towards the explanation of God. Church membership became about assenting to certain explanations and ideas. We had to accept Jesus as x and y in order for God to be present. 

But... no... You see, what the church had right before the Reformation was a sense of mystery and awe that required nothing from us. God is present on the altar whether we are there or not. We don't have to believe anything in particular for God to be with us - God is with us and we accept it or not. 

Worship, in the beginning, was simply a way to encounter the mystery and awe that is "God"

Even if you are like me and see God as more akin to the force in Star Wars then to an old man in the sky this still makes total sense. 

No matter how many times Obi-Wan told Luke about how the force worked - it meant nothing until Luke felt the force within himself. Until he had an encounter with something that was bigger than himself. 

We know this to be true about other things. If I explain to you how beautiful a waterfall is  - even if I paint a picture of it and show you - that does not evoke nearly the same feelings that actually seeing the waterfall would evoke in you.

I know everything about the Grand Canyon and have seen countless pictures - but I have exactly zero feelings about the Grand Canyon. Whereas the Rocky Mountains of Alaska and the Yukon which I have seen up close and personal still conjure a sense of majesty and awe in me though I have not been there in two years. 

So protestant worship - whether traditional, contemporary, artistic or seeker focused is still at a disadvantage simply because we are looking in the wrong direction. We are focused on the word of God which means we are one step removed from the holiness and mystery and awe which is to be found in actual contact with that divine spirit. 

Until we change this focus - we will not be getting at the heart of why traditional religion is failing. 

Now - how to do that?