BLOG 1/7/17. THE CHURCH … YOU NEED CHARITY AND HUMOR
The church can be a fascinating, and often confusing enigma. It is this crazy mix of true and obedient faith, along with those participants who like the familiarity of it all, and then there are those confused seekers who are on a quest and who see contradictions and engage those stumbling-blocks on that quest. On one hand, it is quite easy to be judgmental about it all, on other hand one needs that charity to realize that it is composed of real imperfect human beings … and a good sense of humor.
This is nothing new. In one of the marvelous slave-songs (they contained impressive wisdom), was the one that concludes each stanza with: “Heav’n, Heav’n, Ev’rybody talkin’ ‘bout Heav’n ain’t goin’ to go there. Heav’n, Heav’n …Goin’ to shout all over God’s Heaven,” … which was their way of seeing through the contradictions of their white slave owners. One doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry at some of the participants one encounters inside of ostensible church communities. I quite well remember, early on in my career, being invited to preach the Good Friday meditation as a neighboring Episcopal Church. After the service, at a social gathering in the parish hall, an elegant and out-going lady approached me to thank me for the message. When I asked her about her own spiritual journey, she effusively and with a flair responded: “Oh, I haven’t believed in God for years, but I just love the Episcopal Church.”
That alerted me to a reality that I have tripped over time and again. There are a host of those inside the Christian community, who have a spiritual blank spot in their lives, and the institutions of the Christian faith offer a secure sense of familiarity, and so they identify with the church, and yet miss its message and role as the communities of God’s New Humanity in Christ. When I served as the Presbyterian Church’s denominational resource person in evangelism, and with my initial optimism about what I was called to do, I was soon disillusioned with the reality that what the church really wanted was not equipping in evangelism, but rather some program of marketing to get new members. I found that the church itself was a mission field, and in need of being formed by its own message and mission.
One more episode—again one needs good humor and wisdom and charity when encountering many expressions of the church—when I was the somewhat well-received and popular pastor of a prestigious church, I conceived the plan of involving the congregants in my sermon one Sunday morning. The text was: “… always be prepared to give a reasoned response to anyone who asks you for a reason for the hope that is in you, yet do it with gentleness and respect ….” (I Peter 3:15-16). So, after I had given a brief comment on how essential it was that we make others curious about or hope in Christ, that we ought also to be prepared to give then a brief but thoughtful answer if they asked what or lives and hope were all about. So, I thereupon asked the folks in the congregation to take a few minutes, turn to the person near them, and verbalize the reason for their faith in Christ (with gentleness and respect). Sound reasonable? Not so. I have never gotten such a negative response from so many (not all, but a whole bunch): “Don’t you ever do that to us again.” “How embarrassing!” “You should be ashamed for proposing such a thing in a worship service!” etc. How does one explain such?
Living out our New Creation calling and giving such an answer to those who inquire requires some forethought on our parts, but should be expected. One also needs those qualities inside the church that were used to describe the late Seamus Heaney: Warmth, humor, caring, and courtesy. Church institutions can be an enigma, but our lives need to be incarnations of God’s New Creation, and that involves humor and wisdom in our encounter with others – inside and outside the church community.
