I Love Church!!

I Love Church!

I know how difficult church can be just as I realize how difficult family can be at times,.

I love my family. I love every one of them, even as I remember some of the most difficult and hurtful times in our lives together. Family isn’t easy, and I am no different. I know I had my own times of difficult, and even hurtful behavior.

As I think about getting together with my brothers, our families, and our momma, I smile from ear to ear. I love them and we have fun together. We have a lifetime of memories to share.

I love my church family. I love every one of them, even as I remember some of the most difficult and hurtful times in our lives together, over the years and multiple churches where I served in various capacities before being ordained and called to my current congregation.

I love the feeling of walking into the empty sanctuary, sitting in a pew to get a different view from the one I usually see from the pulpit as pastor and preacher. I especially love listening as the church fills up on Sunday morning with the spirit of love and community. I love to see old friends hug, smiles shared, prayers lifted, songs of praise and lament sung. I love to feel the energy of a sanctuary that comes to life in the Holy Spirit.

I have come to love the spirit of a church that wrestles, discerns, prays and loves together as a community of people gathered by a common faith. Not a right faith. Not a correct tradition. Not an exclusive path to some distant land. But a community of people who gather in varying ways and in varying spaces, to learn from one another and lean on one another.

Church, when church does church well, is a place of community. A place of learning, stretching, and exploring a common faith that pulls us closer to God’s presence. It is a place to experience the Divine within all of creation and to then share that goodness with a world in need.

I love church.

Recently we invested in statues based on the Gospel of Matthew’s reporting of Jesus saying: I was hungry, you fed me; I was thirsty, you gave me something to drink; I was homeless, you gave me a room; I was shivering, you gave me clothes; I was sick, you stopped to visit; I was in prison, you came to me.

It hit me. Sitting as I arranged the statues in our fellowship room.

I love a church that centers Jesus in all that it does.

Not the Jesus of exclusiveness but the Jesus of inclusion.

Not the Jesus of right/wrong beliefs and extreme dualistic worldview. The Jesus that shows us the expansive Spirit of God in all there is.

Not the Jesus of only that time and place in history, but the Jesus that shows the Divine of our own time and place in history now, just as He did then.

The Jesus that invites us to see His Divine Spark, The Christ, so that we can witness that same divine spark in all of creation, even those who society and cultures consider the “least of these” as He says. When and if you do it to anyone, any human, any piece of Creation, you do it to all of humanity: Me, Jesus, the Christ, the Divine, the Human one who lives, walks, and proclaims the divine within each of us.

A church that centers the person of Jesus who still to this day shows us the Sacred, Universal, Cosmic Christ is a church that lives in discernment.

A church that centers Jesus is a church that wrestles with how best embody, as He did, the Love of God in the world.

A church that centers Jesus is a church that explores the depths of God among us. Not just in Jesus but in all of creation.

A church that centers Jesus welcomes all faith traditions as spiritual conduits which allow us, humanity, to experience, explore, and wonder with awe as to the Divine presence, no matter the person, symbol, or tradition that pulls our collective spirit towards deeper love for all of creation and our deepening relationship with and within God.

A church that centers Jesus is a church which sees Jesus in in all of humanity, not just “Christian believers.”

Church is not easy all the time. As a matter of fact, many people have been spiritually, emotionally, and physically hurt by churches proclaiming to be “Christian” but operate far from a Jesus centered faith. In some instances, churches like church more than they like Jesus.

But I love church. The idea of a place where love guides the life of the gathered community can be a good place to find God present and alive in the world. It can be a place to find Jesus, and a catalyst for moving our communities toward a more loving and caring way of being in the world, so that the world may be a more loving and caring place for all.

A good church is a place that replenishes our spirit, a place where we feel cared for, and a place of exploration and expanding our welcome to include all of God’s people.

We may not need more churches in order that people find God. Maybe not.

But a church that invites others to experience God in community and to share that love with the world and one another...O Boy!!!

Those churches are important and have important things to do and say.

I love church!