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What is a church?

There are many facets to that question.  There is the theological view of the bride of Christ.  There is the social view of the body of Christ.  There is the vocational view of the spiritual gifts.  This could go on.

I want to focus on a phrase I heard just recently. 

The church is a safe place to suffer.

Unfortunately for many years we have lived with the idea of the church being a safe place to pretend you weren’t suffering.  We all showed up trying to be perfect.  We seldom shared our problems or hurts.  And heaven forbid (quite literally) that sin would be found amongst us!

After years in the church (and as other older saints will testify), the best place to be is the church.  When the church recognizes that none of us are perfect.  Yes, we are all desirous of being holy, as God is holy.  But, we fall and fail.  Others trespass upon our fragile souls and crush us and cause us to lose faith.  We cannot see the future because we are presently overwhelmed.

The church then grabs a hold of us, and lifts us up – in word and in deed.  And encourages us to continue on. 

That is a safe place to suffer.  That is the church.

I have been captivated by our society’s obsession on fame and shame. 

We desire to create celebrity in every area and avenue of our society.  For those who are heavily into the idea of excellence, we have a business, sports and arts awards system.  For those who are into equality, we create a system where everyone gets an award.

The point is – fame is an investment we would all like to have shares in.  We all want to be honored by someone.  Because we have lost faith in God, we do not allow ourselves to be honored by God.  Our society is fickle – that has gone on for millenia (check out Jesus from Palm Sunday to Resurrection Sunday).  Our own small circle of friends is probably the closest we come to being a place where we expect honor.  Facebook and other social media have “outed” that thought – too many friends are skin deep only and are willing to expose us to ridicule and shame.

So all that leaves as far as fame is ourselves.

Not a pretty picture. 

For you and I are fragile.  We are made from dust and when we die we go back to dust.  If all we can live for is the fact that we are here, if there is nothing beyond this life, and in this life there is no permanence or true recognition outside of ourselves (for when we die, if we are the only ones who honored us, our legacy will die with us) – why continue on?

I dreamt/ had a vision when I was young.  This vision has shaped my life. 

I was looking at a my upcoming career (I was 17 at the time).  I wondered about becoming a manager in a business – like my youth sponsor from our church.  A voice kept asking me if this was a true contribution to the world, and a thing that I should put my life into.  In the vision, I compared the longevity of that business to that of working for the church – which had eternal roots and would always be there.  The choice was obvious.  And the vision vanished!

At the time, I did not realize that this was a matter of fame and shame.  As I approach retirement, I see that I was being directed to consider receiving honor, not from a worldly human organization, but from an eternal divine organization.  In that way, any shame that may have been heaped upon me for following / being employed by the church would not be able to stand the honor that would be lavished on me by God.

40 years later, I’m still affected by the recognition that in God I am recognized.  Not for the work that I have done – although this is a part of judging my commitment to God and this career path.  Rather, I am recognized because God chose to recognize me and to give me honor, and to adopt me into his family and kingdom.

Well, that is a lot of words – more than my usual amount.

This essay on fame and shame is also a first attempt to philosophize and organize some of my thoughts in a written form on a public forum.

I’d love to hear if you have comments.  I’m sure there are points where I need to be clearer (or just plain explain what on earth I just said).  And perhaps there are points that made sense that need expansion.

Thanks.

From a committee meeting (which sometimes can actually be very productive!)

Oftentimes we begin our prayers for God’s blessing of resources with grasping for a certain amount – in dollars, volunteers, materials.  We are expecting that God will have to really work to help us out – we can hardly believe that God would be able to supply that amount.

What if we began with the resource pool as our first understanding.  Let’s remember that God has infinite supplies.  They are there for the asking.  Our prayer is not to knock breathlessly awaiting an answer for our “request for funds”.  Our prayer should be to make sure we know what to ask for, and why we are asking.  Get the request aright and the resources are ours.

Not a bad approach.

Last night out AWANA children were led through the Lord’s prayer.  When we came to the end, they were asked what “forever and ever” meant.

Their answer was quite simple – time never ends.

Simplicity is great, especially from children.  Until you try to picture what that means.

I’ve been trying.

Longer than my dad’s life span – who lived to 91 (almost).  I watched him for almost six decades of my life.  He seemed always to have an endless quality about him.

His last days were more than a little disconcerting to me.  The thought became very real – he would  not live forever.

I read the Bible through quite regularly.  I’ve tried to think through the ages of those early saints (and some quite obvious sinners!).  As I’ve wrapped my head around a few millenia, forever seems like at least that long. If I could record every day and year, my mind begins to lose count while I trudge through the era of Moses or David or Noah. 

Then I read Genesis 1.  And the millenia continue to tumble past my brain cells.  I’m almost comfortable with the age of this earth as being forever.

Until I get to the part where it says, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.”  OK, at that point I put a stake down in my timeline. 

And realize that God started before that.  You ask the AWANA kids how old God is – there answer is again quite simple.  “He never was not.”

Now forever just reached past the horizon of my mind. 

I haven’t even tried to go the other way, into the future!

From beginning to end, God is.  He started with ultimate power, He is in charge of everything, and He sets the standard for all that is good, right, just, pure, compassionate, giving, . . . 

“For Yours is the kingdom, the power and the glory, forever and ever!”