I ventured into church this morning. Sunday 4th December in the Australian Anglican Church marks the Second Sunday in Advent: the celebration of the coming of Christ into the world, leading up to Christmas day. Was this an ‘adventurous’ act? Perhaps not for some, but it was for me.
What drew me there? A sense of the advent-urous for certain. I took a lot of time earlier in the morning to prepare myself mentally for the visit. That fits with the definition of adventurous that I find in the dictionary… “willing to try new or difficult things, or exciting and often dangerous” {See – http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/adventurous}. In this case, today, I was trying something difficult, and perhaps even dangerous. Yes, definitely challenging.
Many who know me may wonder why – after all going to church was not a new event for me, I grew up a regular participant in communion as a member of the Anglican/Church of England of Australia. I have even been to the Episcopalian Cathedral of St Johns, New York, for a Midnight Christmas Service. I have a Degree in Theology, and in the past have led church services and worshiped in both Anglican and Catholic churches in a handful of parishes across Australia, as well as at the Epiphany Cathedral in Second Life. To not participate in the Community of Christians would seem to be against all this and more. Christ is Shepherd, Priest and King to his followers, finding us where we are at, meeting us wherever our need is, and leading us towards Heaven’s reign … and Church is where you get all of this … isn’t it?
Those who have known me in these settings will surely wonder: why is this now an unusual thing to do, and then ask why would it be difficult or challenging?
As this blog attests, spiritual times have been in drought for me. Silence is not spiritual death, however, and I have been wandering the desert times of life with a very keen eye and ear, listening to the lives and journeys of those who would never have felt a reason to go to church. I have done this knowing my own sense of pain and loss in NOT being attendant and participating in any church community… until I could not remember myself anymore.
I felt driven out to these desert places, and have been seeking to understand and respond with compassion to the world which God loves. I can’t remember the last time I entered a church, and for this church in particular it would have been longer still.
What have I learned from this experience? That churches are not the only hallowed places of the Spirit, and church people are rather ordinary folk who often have less of a clue than the average urban punter about where God is and what God is doing in the world. Sorry folks, I am not trying to be rude or have a go at anyone, although that may be what you think. There is an awful lot of pain and brokenness out there in the big wide world, and church people are not immune to experiencing it; but when you know how big the issues are, and how many people are hurting, why would you ever think that the church is the only place you can go to receive Grace and Healing, Forgiveness, Compassion, Love, or a sense of the Creator Redeemer Spirit? That would be like trying to change the colour of the Ocean with an eye dropper or a kiddies paint box set. All that can be said is “Thank God!”
In some ways I have come to understand the average experience of Church as a kind of Kindergarten for Faith. A bit like school, when most people reach adulthood you graduate and leave. That is certainly the pattern that most Churchgoers can see for themselves. The numbers of older teens through to 40 something adults are extremely low on the pews. It was a notable irony that today also happens to be National Church Life Survey week, and the statistics of who goes where of today will be available sometime after April. 2012. (http://www.ncls.org.au/)
So those faithful who remain, who keep the festive seasons and ordinary times of Church going round another cycle, are they stuck in some kind of Groundhog Day of spiritual life?
That is a very individual question, not able to be answered in generalised terms.
What happens to those who leave? Or have never been to church anywhere? Do they stop being Spiritual? Some baptismal doctrines go down that path…
I really value the ongoing life of the church as it presents the seasons of faith to the faithful, and hopefully to the wider world. I have learned, on a continuous spectrum, that God really loves the world… and is working in many varied ways to continuously renew the messages of life and love, suffering and sacrifice, peace and justice, healing and compassion … sometimes because of or through the church, as often as not despite the church.
People of faith we need to be advent-urous people!
Willing to go out into difficult and dangerous places and not simply to preach a rehashed gospel, but to live and breathe the Spirit of God as the Spirit moves across the face of the earth.
Bringing comfort to the people by being present to them, as God is always present to us all.
Living a sacramental life by being a sign that points to the substance which is already there!
But, we have to be able to see it is there in the first place… We have to be able to recognise the ADVENT of CHRIST in our own lives, and in the lives of our neighbours.
And, in recognition, finding compassionate responses to the reality of ourselves and others … building bridges and not walls between ourselves and others.
I hope that this reflection will help in the building… In the name of Jesus, Amen.
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The theme of my Message today is: Who do you say that I am?