Categories: uncategorized
Date: 01 June 2008 21:13:22
Yes, that title really is from me! Having blogged last week about Sunday evenings thoughts during church, I thought I would again! Particularly as I ended up writing lots during the sermon!
Let me set the scene first. It was an 'evening worship' service tonight, without choir, which basically means that it was very basic, plain service. Some hymns, NT and OT readings, a said psalm, a sermon and some prayers. The congregation for this type of service tends to be small to very small - tonight there were about 15 people, which is fairly normal for this type of service.
The preacher was a retired ordained man who attends the church, who is very 'happy clappy' (which I was assured tonight was not the correct terminology!!). The church as a whole isn't generally very like that.
He wittered on throughout the sermon about gifts of the spirit and how everyone should be open to receive them, and spent a lot of time going on about healing and 'dramatic' stuff (tongues, prophesy etc). The way he presented what he had to say it seemed to me very patronising, very 'I've got the gifts and you haven't' and very much that having the gift of healing (or a similar 'dramatic' type gift) was THE most important thing ever. And if you don't have one of these dramatic life changing gifts, or you can't be healed, there's something wrong with you - you have a sin you've not confessed, or you've not forgiven someone or something similar which makes you a bad person. It seemed to me that he was implying that you should live for one of these gifts - it is the be-all and end-all. Christianity is about the miraculous. You cannot be an 'ordinary' christian, there is no such thing - you have to be full on dramatic. IMVHO people end up living with 'unresolved expectations', they don't actually live life in the real current world, but always looking to the amazing thing that this wonderful god is going to do for them / to them. They end up as very 'unordinary' people, and not in a good way (certainly in terms of showing that church / christianity etc can be for 'normal' every day people) but in a 'religious freak' type way.
I know I don't have a positive attitude to these sorts of things because of previous experience, but I was getting so angry by it all!!
The particular congregation too, are so not the sort of people who I would imagine would be 'interested' in what he was saying - it's the sensible, grounded older people, who have more a 'quiet' faith. I'm sure he'd be great with one of the 'other' congregations in the church, but it just seemed rather pointless there.
One of the things about all of this, which I so don't understand, is why I get so annoyed by this sort of thing. I don't get why I care and can be so passionate about it all. I don't believe a lot (most?) of it, yet want the world to know that christians aren't neccesarily religious 'freaks' (which I've obviously come across far too many of).
There are two particular ordained people who I've met in the last 5 years who have so so shown me how 'normal' christians can be. One particularly I see fairly often is so utterly down to earth and normal and nice and lovely, yet so 'holy' and ernest and everything else that it does make me wonder if there really is something in it all.
Yet again, I feel I've degenerated into waffle, so I'll stop.