Categories: uncategorized
Date: 05 April 2010 07:40:33
An outsider sees the buildings and thinks: Hypocrites, abusers, middle class, homophobes, moral dictators, out of touch, do gooders and more
An insider sees the buildings and thinks: family, community, welcome, meetings, structure, wholeness and more
Sometimes the boundaries get blurred:
The outsider thinks of people and churches they know personally. Then specific buildings or groups of people become: Good people, caring people, helpful people but still other people.
The insider thinks of people and churches they have known personally. Then specific buildings or groups of people become: argumentative, controlling, out of touch, middle class and dead. But these are still other people.
The fact is that the church in this country, and around the world is and contains a mix of the good, the bad and the downright ugly.
News reports which contain truth telling about the past cannot, must not be ignored or the pain that they produce thought to be erased with a simple sorry by the church.
The good the church is doing cannot, must not be ignored or the relief they bring thought to be acknowledged in general statements about the role of the voluntary sector by the world.
Truth is this messed up, struggling, confident, growing group of people and "institutions" called the church is a thing which is in a constant state of transformation, having to continuously renegotiate it's role and place in the world around.
The world changes from day to day, hour to hour presenting us with new challenges to work out the Christian response to.
The church should be changing from day to day, hour to hour presenting the church with new challenges to work out the secular response to.
The world changes from day to day, hour to hour giving us new things to learn from it and new opportunities to see God at work in them.
The church changes from day to day, hour to hour and should be giving the world new things to learn from it and new opportunities to see God at work in them.
That doesn't mean it's all change though.
The world has a history for us to learn from. A history whose events have impacted the church for good and for bad.
The church has a history for the world to learn from. A history whose events have impacted the world for good and for bad.
The church wants a seat at the table of the world, to try and get its point of view across.
The world should be given a seat at the table of the church, to try and get its point across.
The cross of God giving realised salvation, the Kingdom of God giving realised eschatology and the mission of God giving realised responsibility are in the world but not of the world. We need to work out what that means. Personally, I don't know, but I'm praying hard for God to reveal it and then for the courage to act on whatever that revelation means.
I stand and say I am part of "the church" - "one body", but then want to say the abuse scandal is nothing to do with me, that's a Catholic problem.
I stand and say I am part of "the church" - "one body", but then want to say the homophobic stance of some is nothing to do with me, I go to an inclusive church.
I stand and say I am part of "the church" - "one body", but then want to say the execess of the tv evangelists and religious right are nothing to do with me, I take a radical theological position, which is more open and far greener.
I stand and say I am part of "the church" - "one body", but then want to say I am not guilty of the denegration of women, I am a feminist.
Equally I stand in the world saying I want to be an equal part with my rights respected, but then then do not use my responsibility to vote.
I stand in the world saying I want to be an equal part with my rights respected, but then allow my fear of "the other" to dictate my opinions and my actions.
I stand in the world saying I want to be an equal part with my rights respected, but then allow my concern about my bank balance to fill my shopping basket with goods I know have been produced through the oppression of others.
So here I stand, looking back on yesterday, on the cross and living out it's meaning. Looking at the cross of God giving realised salvation, the Kingdom of God giving realised eschatology and the mission of God giving realised responsibility are in the world but not of the world. Realising I am a hypocrite , abuser, middle class, homophobe, moral dictator, who is an out of touch, do gooder and more because I am part of the church, a church which is family, community, welcome, meetings, structure, wholeness and more. However, I also live in a world full of hypocrites, abusers, middle class, homophobes, moral dictators, out of touch, do gooders and more and encounter situations which feel like places of family, community, welcome, meetings, structure, wholeness and more.
The only difference: the church should be the meeting together of people who see God in the world, and recognise the imago dei within them, praising him, acknowledging him and screaming out to him in pain about the world He and they are part of.
(I know, yet again I've gone off on one. But reading the papers and listening to people within the wider church recently I wanted to say/ scream something and this is the only space I have to do it).