autumn in the rain

Image by Denis Collette…!!! via Flickr

Dismal dreary days lead to a dismal dreary heart. A life that finds hope hard, strength weak, and rest difficult.

Autumn in the rain.

The trees shed their coverings and stand naked against the steel gray sky. Rain and wind lash at the windows and threaten to make hearts as cold as the bare feet on this hardwood floor.

Disillusionment occurs when real life doesn’t live up to our expectations. — Sarah Cunningham in Dear Church: Letters from a Disillusioned Generation

Maybe this happens when people do not live up to our expectations. Disappointment just does not really fit the feeling. Sure that is there. There is a sadness and heartbreak, a feeling of being let down. More, though, is this feeling that they have let themselves down. A feeling that they are not being true to who they claim to be, to who God is calling them to be. A frustration that there is freedom available if they could only open their eyes.

Disillusionment has this sense of removing the rose coloured glasses through which we see the world. A freeing from false belief or appearance. To be disillusioned is to be able to see through the masks that others wear. A freedom to see things as they really are.

Recently, I was sitting in church and it hit me.

Is this really it? Are we being the church God had in mind? Is this what God had in mind when he stood with his disciples in the final moments of his life on earth and told them to go into all parts of the world and declare his authority over all creation? Is this what he envisioned when declaring that the gates of Hell will not prevail against the church of Jesus Christ?

I think not. I think that we have allowed consumerism, pragmatism, and individualism to deeply implicate our vision of Church; we can no longer see clearly what God intended for us to experience as the people of God. — JR Kerr on the Q blog

Is it possible that our focus on the existing entity to which we belong, the physical congregation which gathers at a given place a given number of times every week, is hindering our vision of what we could be in Christ? Is it possible that God is calling us to sacrifice our own comfort in order to follow where he is leading? Is it possible that he is calling us to pick up a cross (an instrument of torture and death) to follow him?

Autumn in the rain.

There is hope even in this, because it is only through our own death that we receive his life.

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eyes to see

Image by * 5 ō Ō ō 5 α ω ō я ℓ ∂ via Flickr

“It is customary to blame secular scienca and anti-religious philosophy for the eclipse of religion in modern society.” Abraham Joshual Heschel

Christians often moan about the fall of “Christian culture” within which we live. We look around us and wonder why it is that things have gone this way. It seems as though we are in the Autumnal stages of a culture that so many people dearly loved.

However when I see this movement I say, “Good ridance.” The so-called Christianity which seeped its way into the popular culture became so warped and twisted, so allied with earthly powers and kingdoms that it became virtually unrecognisable from the good news for the oppressed which it is. It slowly became good news for the rich and powerful. It became a tool to oppress rather than one to liberate.

In many places it still is.

“It would be more honest to blame religion for its own defeats. Religions declined not because it was refuted, but because it became irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid. When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendor of the past; when faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rahter than with the voice of compassion–its message becomes meaningless.” Abraham Joshual Heschel

We have to admit that perhaps the reason many people around us no longer claim to follow Jesus is because we have not given them sufficient reason to want to. Often our lives seem to be more drugery than joy.

What happens, however, when these problems are reversed? What happens when habit turns into love, when discipline changes to worship, creeds are imbibed with deep faith?

What happens when the faith we receive as an heirloom suddenly begins to flow living water?

God is opening our heart to the lost, the hurting, the oppressed. God is renewing our first love for him, and changing our hearts of stone to hearts of flesh.

God is moving in this world.

May we open our eyes to see.

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moralistic Christianity: a rant

There is this children’s song that I rather despise. Many of you know it, I am sure.

Oh, be careful little eyes, what you see.
Oh, be careful little eyes, what you see.
Because the Father up above, is looking down in  love,
So be careful little eyes, what you see.

Oh be careful little ears what you hear…

You may wonder why I detest this song so, and it mainly has to do with the fact that this begins the long process of indoctrinating children with a moralistic faith. One that produces good behaviour because God is watching and will get you if you do wrong. See children understand that they get punished if they are caught doing something wrong.

The underlying message, if God were not watching we could do whatever we want; but since he is, we can’t.

My son, who is three years old, tries to get away with things all the time. He does something wrong, then quickly moves somewhere else and looks at us with these big doe eyes as though he did nothing wrong.

So people sing this song so that their children will know that someone is always watching and will see when you do wrong. I know that the song says that he is looking down in love, but the rest of the content of the song sends a much different message.

I understand that God punishes evil, and wrong doing. But I also understand that Jesus Christ has removed the wrong from me and so when God looks at me he sees the perfection of God. Why then the injunction to “be careful”?

Reformed Christians have long emphasised that the life of the Christian is a life of service to a God who has done so much to us.

We do not do good because God is watching, as if we would not have to do good if her were not watching.

We do good because God has saved us.

Too many people reduce the Bible to a list of moralisms, and the application made of the lives of so many of the saints is “go and do likewise.” I am not saying there are no ethics in the scriptures, what I am saying is that the Bible is not primarily an ethics book.

How to live a good life is not the primary concern of the scriptures.

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dear church: letters from a disillusioned generation

I have met many a person in the past few years who are extremely dissatisfied with the way things are going in their local congregations. Time and time again these people express a profound disappointment in ‘Church’, a disappointment so deep that they wonder if it is even worthwhile to talk about it.

This may explain why I got such joy from reading Sarah Cunningham’s Dear Church: Letters from a Disillusioned Generation. In this book Sarah attempts to write to the larger ‘Church’ (by this she means all those who affiliate themselves with some sort of organised religion) in the voice of all those who are disappointed, or disillusioned with the ‘Church’.

Throughout the book Sarah attempts to explain to those who may not understand just what the younger generation is experiencing in their church life. She expresses their disappointment with the exclusivity, inauthenticity, and requirements of the ‘Church’.

When discussing the problems associated with our tendency to exclude those who do not look or act like us, she says that the only entrance requirement to any Christian community should be belief; simple, basic, belief in the one God has sent. Now, I agree with Sarah that we need to be less discriminating on who we associate with, and who we extend the good news of God’s grace to. However, to shrink the gospel down to “just believe” does not do anyone any good. The next question will always be, “Believe what?”

Even though there are times that Sarah seems to oversimplify things a bit, she does not leave the reader wallowing in worry about the disillusioned generation. Without ignoring the critiques she outlines, she moves on to finding a solution. This solution, believe it or not, includes NOT leaving the community we are disillusioned with. Rather than running for the door or settling in to endure disillusionment, she encourages commitment and work when the going gets rough.

The book may be best summed up in the following quote.

Disillusionment with the way things are in the church can also inspire us to improve and deepen our involvement in Christ’s mission.

While Sarah may tend to simplify things a bit, especially in the face of some of the harder critiques, in an age and culture that tends to complain from the sidelines, this book a breath of fresh air.

dear church chapters 11-14

I know, I know, I said I would go through these chapters one at a time, but frankly with the birth of my second child I have not had the time. So, rather than drop the project altogether I thought I would give a brief over view of these last chapters. More than that I want to interact with the book as a whole.

Sarah begins chapter 11 (the most responsible letter yet) , and really the last bit of the book, trying to address the question “should the disillusioned stick with their local congregations?”

Should I end this correspondence with a flight attendant-like spiel that points the disillusioned to their church’s nearest emergency exit? Or should I encourage them to strap on their seat belts and learn to use their oxygen masks so they can weather more of their church’s turbulent flights?

She spends the rest of the book saying that really there is something in between that is more to the point. Those who are disillusioned with the church should not simply run for the door, nor should they simply settle in to endure what is going on. They should get involved!

Fancy that!

Now, all facetiousness aside, this is an important thing to note. It is important for those who are not satisfied with what is going on within the Christian community to speak up, stand up, and make a difference.

This may mean going to a different church; one that is more open to change. But is most likely means simply getting more involved, and working to maintain vision. The biggest problem I see for the church of the future is that those who are disillusioned simply become numb and continue on the same road.

This is perhaps the best thing that we can get from this book. It is good, and even right to be disillusioned. However, the disillusionment, or disappointment should lead somewhere (and not necessarily out of the church). Growth does not happen without change, and even a little pain. The book is perhaps summed up best in this quote.

Disillusionment with the way things are in the church can also inspire us to improve and deepen our involvement in Christ’s mission.