Today’s Readings: Psalm 120; Exodus 12:14-27; Luke 11:53-12:12; Romans 11:22-24; Psalm 135
I was talking with some friends yesterday about the Emerging Movement that’s happening within the Christian community. In talking with them, I made one observation about the dynamics of our faith today. I said, “When we’ve talked about change within the Christian community for the past thirty years, we’ve usually done so stressing just one thing – superficial techniques. In the context of worship, for instance, we’ve talked about making change by adding a LED projector and screen or adding drums and electric guitars. That was about as far as conversations regarding change went. As we look at the changes occurring today within the Christian Community the change is no longer about superficial technique – the change is about substance: about increasing the integrity and depth of our faith.” This is the sort of change Jesus was calling his disciples to in today’s reading from Luke when he said, “You can’t keep your true self hidden forever; before long you’ll be exposed. You can’t hide behind a religious mask forever; sooner or later the mask will slip and your true face will be known” (Luke 12:2 from The Message). So how did a movement that was founded on authenticity and integrity find pockets of itself slipping and become about putting on masks? There are probably tons of different answers to the questions. Certainly the growth of the bureaucracy fueled the slide. There’s another subtle way the slide was expedited; through the clothes we wear to church. In the early days of the church, folks wanted to dress up when they came to church as a sign of respect and reverence for God. That was a good thing. Over time, however, the dynamics involved in dressing up began to spill over into other attitudes within the church. People subconsciously began equating dressing up in terms of clothes with dressing up spiritually/emotionally; as a result, they began to leave some of their doubts and fears at home since they felt it would be inappropriate to bring them with them to church. Then dressing up spilled over to the social dynamics of the church. The clothes we wore started determining what kind of community we were and what kind of people would fit in “our” community. Little by little – without even realizing it – our attitudes about what we wear to church helped push us further in our slide from the authenticity of which Jesus spoke toward an approach toward church that became about mask wearing. So am I suggesting that we start dressing down to church and wearing our grubbies? No. That would be a superficial, technique-oriented solution that I spoke of earlier. My suggestion is that we take steps to bring our external experience in line with our internal experience – that we take a risk like the one Jesus spoke of and quit putting on our masks. If we do that, we’ll realize that the most important thing we bring into church is not the clothes we wear – it’s the condition of our heart. Til next time…
I was talking with some friends yesterday about the Emerging Movement that’s happening within the Christian community. In talking with them, I made one observation about the dynamics of our faith today. I said, “When we’ve talked about change within the Christian community for the past thirty years, we’ve usually done so stressing just one thing – superficial techniques. In the context of worship, for instance, we’ve talked about making change by adding a LED projector and screen or adding drums and electric guitars. That was about as far as conversations regarding change went. As we look at the changes occurring today within the Christian Community the change is no longer about superficial technique – the change is about substance: about increasing the integrity and depth of our faith.” This is the sort of change Jesus was calling his disciples to in today’s reading from Luke when he said, “You can’t keep your true self hidden forever; before long you’ll be exposed. You can’t hide behind a religious mask forever; sooner or later the mask will slip and your true face will be known” (Luke 12:2 from The Message). So how did a movement that was founded on authenticity and integrity find pockets of itself slipping and become about putting on masks? There are probably tons of different answers to the questions. Certainly the growth of the bureaucracy fueled the slide. There’s another subtle way the slide was expedited; through the clothes we wear to church. In the early days of the church, folks wanted to dress up when they came to church as a sign of respect and reverence for God. That was a good thing. Over time, however, the dynamics involved in dressing up began to spill over into other attitudes within the church. People subconsciously began equating dressing up in terms of clothes with dressing up spiritually/emotionally; as a result, they began to leave some of their doubts and fears at home since they felt it would be inappropriate to bring them with them to church. Then dressing up spilled over to the social dynamics of the church. The clothes we wore started determining what kind of community we were and what kind of people would fit in “our” community. Little by little – without even realizing it – our attitudes about what we wear to church helped push us further in our slide from the authenticity of which Jesus spoke toward an approach toward church that became about mask wearing. So am I suggesting that we start dressing down to church and wearing our grubbies? No. That would be a superficial, technique-oriented solution that I spoke of earlier. My suggestion is that we take steps to bring our external experience in line with our internal experience – that we take a risk like the one Jesus spoke of and quit putting on our masks. If we do that, we’ll realize that the most important thing we bring into church is not the clothes we wear – it’s the condition of our heart. Til next time…
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