Chris, a fairly polished debate speaker and atheist (at the time), stepped infront of the microphone that Sunday morning to tell the seventy person church that I worked at that he thought what we were doing was a waste of time. He shared with this fairly new church that if we really believed Jesus was who he said he was and if we studied what Jesus actually did it would seem that Jesus would be happier if we’d help people than sit around and sing songs about him.
Chris is (and was) one of my good friends and I had asked him to share because I though (and still think) he’s got a really good point. Why in the world do Christians across the world commit themselves to gathering together every frickin’ Sunday to sing songs and talk about Jesus when they could be out and about actually making a difference?!
Is the world–is anyone better off with Christians holed up in a building for three hours every Sunday? (Ok, sarcastic and funny friends of mine who don’t buy into this Jesus stuff, insert joke here. Haha, too good of a setup right?) Would the world be better off if the one hundred million Sunday church goers would go plant trees, care for a single mother, and clean their elderly neighbors roof off?*
The reality, I think, is that gathering together is inevitable. Think about it, when you fall in love with an idea–whether that idea is centered around a person, a movement, a story, a truth, a lie, or something else you and others who share that same love begin to gather around that common passion. You find ways of structuring your life (at least pieces of it) around it, you want to talk about it together, you want to live within that emotion that is bringing you joy. That’s just how we as people roll isn’t it? So for Christians to gather together makes perfect sense…the question is…why don’t Christians gather together on Sunday mornings and pick up garbage instead of sing pretty songs. That’s the real question isn’t it? That was Chris’ question. And I think the answer is that Christianity isn’t actually, at its core, about how you behave. Christianity is a story. Thats it. It’s a giant grand story. (I personally think its a really good one too).
The whole Bible thing is a narrative from start to finish that is supposedly reframing how we view and understand reality. The story that Jesus (and all of the Bible) tells invites us into new behaviors (dying to self and living for others, unconditional love, gentleness, generosity, etc.), it invites us to live into that new understanding of reality, it seeks to capture us up into something bigger than ourselves. A story. But for a story to take hold, for it to capture not only your heart but your mind and your hands it must be told and retold…and so Christians decided to start off their week gathering around their common story–seeking to be inspired and challenged and reminded what kind of story their trying to live out of. ‘Cause if Christians get their story wrong–if they miss the point–their story kind of sucks and they get caught up into living out something else…something that’s not quite so beautiful…something that WILL NOT propel them toward caring for others.
This blog isn’t about IF Christians may or may not be caught up in the wrong story, or HOW they should best gather together to tell and retell their story, or WHEN or WHERE or in WHAT manner they should gather. I’ve got lots of opinions about the if, how, when, where, and what (LOTS!)…but the why. The why makes sense to me. Why? Because telling and living a beautiful story depends on it.
* This rhetorical question is one that I don’t claim in any way to fully answer here ’cause I think it deserves more than this cursory response I’ve written today!
Woke up this morning, brought the chickens all the scraps from yesterday, watered the garden, picked a couple of cucumbers, a pattypan squash, and a crookneck squash, our friend dropped off her daughter who will walk to school with us while her mom is cast for Portlandia…and now its time to fix some breakfast.