Never Go To Church Again!
I'm going to take a brief break from the "Blue Like Jazz" inspired posts and write about something which has been weighing on me as of late... church and how we view it. Here's the average Sunday church experience for the average Christian:
Put on your Sunday best and head to the church, the building, with a group of other well-dressed and obedient protestants.
Walk past the "First Church of the Whatever" sign and glance and see what the pastor will be talking about today. Get excited to see we're going to have one of those entertaining/funny sermons. This week it's:
Q: Why didn't Cain please God?
A: Because he just wasn't Able (or Abel if you want to be extra cute)
Sit down, face front, and let the music begin. Bring the leather-bound bible and set it gently on the pew next to you along with the hymnal (only approved "worship" songs come from the hymnal... it was printed in 1968... I have no clue what they did before that, played a harp or something). Sing 3 songs (gotta beat the Baptists to lunch, after all), Lord's Prayer. Now to learn about Jesus.
Then the sharply dressed preacher takes to the pulpit and delivers a 25-minute message of comfort about how Jesus loves them regardless of what they did during the week and throw in 2 or 3 jokes just to make sure everyone feels really good about themselves when they leave.
We do this every week because of the traditions we have carried on from the time of the first church. Back when Jesus wore his 3-piece suit to teach unchallenging messages with a touch of humor and sing a few songs with his followers. Wait... that's not what the first church was like?!? But we do things this way because they've always been done this way, right?
No, the first documented gathering of the church also happens to be my very favorite part of the bible. Matthew 5:1-7:29. This is what is commonly known as "The Beatitudes" and the "Sermon on the Mount". Getting into the specifics of the sermon on the mount is a whole other blog series entirely, but here's a link which I suggest you take the time to read and really think about the depth of this sermon and this church gathering.
But, how can you have church on a hillside? There's no sound board. No overhead. No Powerpoint. No guitar. Those are the things which make a church a church!
No, that's not true. Here's what "the church" was and should be trying to restore itself to be (regardless of a building or technology):
Church was a bunch of Christ-followers and some other people who had the word taken to them coming together to follow and live with Jesus. It doesn't matter if it was Sunday morning, Tuesday afternoon, or Saturday night. The purpose of the church was for a community of believers to walk together in their faith in God and His son, Jesus Christ.
If you continue read on from the Sermon on the Mount, there's several other gatherings listed in pretty short succession. It appears Christ had his "church" with him wherever he went. The sermon could have been 20 seconds or two hours, but always with the same intent... teaching a message of faith, and loving God and your neighbor. Not just Sunday mornings. But 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year.
The real church is described perfectly in Colossians 2:6-7
My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you've been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You're deeply rooted in him. You're well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you've been taught. School's out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving.
So, I urge you, stop going to church and start being the church. That... will revolutionize the world.
Chocolate, God, and Cigarettes
"We would eat chocolates and smoke cigarettes and read the Bible, which is the only way to do it, if you ask me. The Bible is so good with chocolate. I always thought the Bible was more of a salad thing, you know, but it isn't. It is a chocolate thing."
-Donald Miller, "Blue Like Jazz"
Sadly, one of the reasons many people are opposed to church and Christianity is because of The Bible. Well, not so much because of the bible, but because of how it is presented to them and/or used against them.
I still remember the first time I decided to purchase a bible. I didn't know there were different versions of it! Great, but what on Earth was the difference? Nobody told me which was the right version to get! I decided to go with a King James Version (KJV) Bible... I'd definitely seen this, so it seemed like a reasonable idea at the time.
Let's take a look at a very well-known bible verse, John 3:16 as it appears in the KJV:
"For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."
Awesome. Great concept. But, I was 16... "begotten? believeth?", this was more like Shakespeare than God's word. How could I get excited about a God who talks to me like He's speaking from the stage at The Globe? Now, I know there are some "religions" (see previous blog post) which will tell you I am bound to go to hell because I don't read the KJV. In fact, here's a quote I found while looking for statistics as to why people don't read their bible more:
"Because they aren't literate enough to read a real Bible (KJV) so they figure why waste their time with a fake one."
A bold statement. Made with conviction. Who wrote this? It was this guy...
"By Anonymous, at July 20, 2007 3:30 PM"
Sure, way to stand by your beliefs there, Captain Anonymous.
Let's take a look at John 3:16 in a couple of other versions of the bible:
NIV
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."
THE MESSAGE
"This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn't go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again. Anyone who trusts in him is acquitted; anyone who refuses to trust him has long since been under the death sentence without knowing it. And why? Because of that person's failure to believe in the one-of-a-kind Son of God when introduced to him."
The concept appears to be very much the same. So, is it really important that you read a specific version of The Bible, or is it more important to find a version which A) sticks to what God's message is, B) makes sense to you, and C) you enjoy reading?
Once I found one which worked for me, I started to enjoy reading it. There was the gospels (particularly Matthew for me). Corinthians. The beatitudes & the sermon on the mount. Mind blowing stuff, all of it.
The Bible, to me, is not a weapon. It is not for beating or thumping. It is not an ancient text to be studied like the Greek mythologies. It is not propaganda.
The Bible, to me, is a history of God. It is a refuge for the hurt, lost and suffering. It is God's word. It is God's message of grace as he was obligated to give us nothing. It is a record of the life, death, and resurrection of His son, Jesus Christ.
The Bible is love. It is hope. It is kindness. It's a way to revolutionize the world if we truly live by the example which was set for us.
