Finding Jesus in Church

“... if people can actually encounter and experience the Holy Spirit in and through that congregation, then not only will people’s thinking be changed but so will their lives. ”

Greetings!

I would like to use this year’s Dave Raves to talk about some important matters that I think Pilgrim needs to give some thought to, especially when things return to some semblance of normalcy. To be clear, they’re not really articles, they’re sermon manuscripts. In other words, they’re going to take a little time and thought to digest. Think of them as virtual sermons for people who aren’t on Zoom or YouTube. This month’s message is entitled, Coffee I Can Get at Starbuck’s.

If you go into a car dealership, there’s a good chance that you’ll be offered a cup of coffee. It might even be a very good cup of coffee and come with a cookie. I’ve known dealerships that will offer a variety of other things - a barbecue sandwich complete with chips and a drink or tickets to some recreational event. As nice as all these things are, however, car dealerships are in business to sell cars. That’s the main reason I or anyone else goes into a dealership. Coffee I can get at Starbuck’s. Any dealership that somehow forgets this fact isn’t going to sell many cars and probably isn’t going to make much money on coffee either.

With this four wheeled intro in mind, let me now turn to the subject of churches. They, like car dealerships, need to be clear about who they are and what they offer. I could say the same about other non-profit and service organizations. If I make a donation to the American Heart Association, I don’t want to find out that the money was used to feed the hungry. It’s not that I object to feeding the hungry; it’s just that I expect the American Heart Association to fight (Wait for it.) heart disease. There are other organizations out there to help provide food

Unfortunately, many mainline churches are not at all clear as to what they are about. Some think they’re main job is to provide meaningful relationships between and among its members, not infrequently beginning with a coffee hour before or after worship. Others feel it’s their calling to address various social ills. (For our purposes, the precise issues and stances are irrelevant.) Still others see it as their mission in life to provide a variety of cultural offerings such as music, art, lecture series, etc. A final option is to provide a variety of community activities, or as is often the case, provide space for said activities. Examples would include twelve step groups, daycare, tutoring, and financial planning.

If you’re asking, “What’s wrong with these things?” the answer is, in one sense, “Nothing.” These are all obviously perfectly decent and beneficial things to do, just as there’s nothing wrong with a car dealer providing coffee, cookies, or concert tickets. In another sense, however, the answer is, “A lot.” You see none of these things is the central purpose of a church. It’s like a Chevy dealer that somehow doesn’t sell Chevrolets. And just as I can get coffee at Starbuck’s (and probably a much better cup at that) so I can get all of these other things in other places (and probably with considerably better quality).

Friendships can be found in any number of activities, places, and organizations (for some, even at Starbuck’s). Specific social and political issues have any number of well defined, organized, and funded organizations that would love my support. If I’m more of a generalist, there are the Democrats and Republicans. Cultural activities are easy to come by, either by attending a concert, museum, theater, or lecture hall or by tuning in on my TV or assorted electronic devices. The one exception might be organ concerts which are for the most part still found in churches alone. Even there, however, it’s usually only the larger churches that have the talent and organ to really provide topnotch quality. (Pilgrim, thanks to Perry, is one of the rare exceptions.) As to community activities, again not hard to find elsewhere, and if it’s just a matter of renting space, can a church really claim to be the one offering that program? To complete this circle, I would point out that most people develop their friendships through their activities. If you like gardening and are looking for friends, a garden club of some sort would be an excellent place to look.

So what is the central purpose of a church, the ecclesiastical equivalent of a dealer selling cars? What can churches offer that other organizations and activities can’t? I would like to suggest that the answer to that question is Jesus. I know this should be obvious, but 35+ years of ministry tells me it’s not. This is especially, though hardly exclusively, true in churches that are heirs to the “liberal” side of the theological split that hit the US in the early part of the 20th century (albeit with beginnings as early as the 1700s). Here’s how this worked and works.

Due, ironically, to an overblown emphasis on God’s greatness on the part of Protestants like John Calvin way back in the 1500s, God was slowly pushed further and further from the day-to-day life of western Europeans and their descendants. Eventually, this led to a an increasingly secularized view of reality. Two lines of response to this secularism emerged. One essentially doubled down on Christianity’s traditional claims, including a number of claims that were pretty easily disproved by the rising disciplines of modern science and history.

The other tried to work out a compromise with the modern world, which on the surface makes pretty good sense. Unfortunately, there came a point where so much ground was ceded to secularism that it became very difficult to say that what was left was anything other that secularism with a religious vocabulary or veneer. “God” became just another word for the universe, or for various philosophical concepts that were actually even more fetched than anything traditional Christianity ever taught. In other cases “God” became the equivalent of Eastern concepts such as “Brahman” or “Emptiness” or “Oneness” which all make perfect sense in Hinduism or Buddhism but are the very antithesis of what Jews, Christians, Muslims, and even classical Pagans understand by “God.”

Jesus became just another great religious figure or a great political and social teacher whose death was yet another illustration of what happens when the powers that be are threatened. His resurrection was then reinterpreted as an expression of the human capacity to hope against hope or the belief that life will continue for the living, even in the face of great loss. Alternatively, it’s a metaphor for the cycle of death and rebirth we see in nature. One generation dies off but another arises. Christ’s resurrection was no longer an event in which Jesus actually rose from the dead; it was just a symbol. Think of the way Santa Claus is frequently explained. No, he’s not real, but he’s a good symbol of kindness to children and the importance of giving. Rather obviously, it’s possible to have those benefits without Santa. In like manner, it’s possible to have hope and believe in the next generation without Jesus’ resurrection.

The end result of this shift was and is a form of Protestant liberalism that is more about philosophy, history, psychology, and sociology than anything recognizable as Christian Theology. This has been a slow process that has slowly filtered from seminaries into the pulpits and often the pews of mainline churches.

Perhaps you will think this odd, but I really have few difficulties with people who do not believe in God as traditionally understood in the west or who do not believe that Jesus rose from the dead. What I have a problem with is those who hold such beliefs (or lack thereof) and continue to call themselves Christian. In practical terms, I like the Unitarian Universalists. They make it very clear up front that while their roots are in Christianity, they themselves are not Christian. They are like a car dealer who decided to give up selling cars and opened a coffee shop instead. When I go into his store, he sells me a cup of coffee. He doesn’t try and convince me that a caramel latte is really a Chevy Camaro (even if the price is in the same range).

Now here’s why all this is important. Beliefs have consequences and certain ideas necessitate certain conclusions. If I believe in a personal God (i.e., a being with the capacity to think, feel, decide, and act) then I can also speak of such things as freedom, agency, and love in meaningful ways. If I decide no such being exists, then I must also accept the fact that everything I think, do, or say, is determined by the way the neurons in my brain fire (or don’t fire) in response to whatever sense data is transmitted by my five senses.

Further, if I deny the reality of Jesus’ resurrection (or more generally, the concept of some sort of conscious life beyond the grave), then I am forced to admit that ultimately all human accomplishments will one day be forgotten and that the notion that anyone’s life “mattered” is simply another temporary arrangement of neurons. A dead grandfather is ultimately no different than a dead woodchuck. You might not think so right now but come dinner time you won’t be thinking of either one. After a few generations, neither will anyone else, ever

These concepts are of course very bleak. I have listened to and read many people who have therefore tried to get around them while still holding to the non-existence of God and the non-reality of resurrection. None has been at all successful and the standard response is simply a version of, “Well, that’s not true,” albeit without a single shred of rational argument to support it.

There are exceptions who are willing to accept the necessary consequences of atheism. The philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche is the best known. My favorite is a guy named Michael Shermer who was the editor of Skeptic Magazine. He admits that free will is just an illusion, but then also admits that he can’t live his life like that. Without some notion of choice, our world falls apart. For example, how can you try someone for any crime or appeal to justice when no one is free to choose other than what they have done? Shermer recognizes his hypocrisy but sees no way to live without it.

These are some of the key philosophical and logical issues involved. Now here is where they fit into the daily life of a church. Most obviously, when I or any other cleric (the proper singular of clergy) conduct a funeral, am I just saying some nice words about someone who is no more than a memory (or body, or ashes) or am I setting forth a genuine, substantial hope that we will one day be reunited with the departed loved one? Is this a final goodbye or is it a long farewell?

Second, what is the nature of our relationships now? Are we just another social species with an elaborate pack or herd mentality or are we beings capable of significant interaction and affection? Put another way, is love more than an abundance of Oxytocin? What is really happening during coffee hour—spiritual connection or just chemistry?

Third, in what are our ethics, morals, and values rooted? Are these just ephemeral concepts that change from culture to culture and time to time depending on the setting and circumstances or are they standards rooted in an eternal, personal being? Are there consequences to our choices that cannot be avoided through various forms of power and manipulation or does might make right? Is there any real reason why we should be socially involved other than it seems like a good thing to do? To use my favorite illustration, what would you say to an ancient Spartan warrior who sees your compassion for the downtrodden as nothing more than cowardly weakness? While you’re working on your answer, keep two things in mind. One, the guy probably has a sword and knows how to use it. Two, without his “barbarism” you don’t have any of your freedoms or your high-minded ideals. They died with the Persian invasion of Greece.

Fourth, is the dexterity in a guitarist’s or painter’s hand just a result of some prehistoric ancestor’s ability to more effectively crack open a nut or grab a stick with which to discourage a predator or is it an expression of an infinite Creator? Is your appreciation of a sunset just a vestige of some predecessor’s need to see patterns and colors in order to tell a tiger from a patch of tall grass or is it a reflection of a loving God’s appreciation of beauty?

Fifth, is meaning something more than a concept? Do our lives actually matter in a universe that is spatially infinite and over 13 billion years old or are we just infinitesimal, inconsequential specks? What does it mean to be human--nothing or everything?

If you want to be someone who actually does think, these are the questions that authentic Christian Faith poses and insists that you take the time to answer. They are questions that underlie everything you think, say, and do. They involve everything from the joy you feel when you see a newborn baby to the aching emptiness of losing a loved one. Perhaps it is because I have seen my share of both that I take my faith quite seriously and tend to think that it would behoove others to do likewise.

This is also why I think that the fundamental purpose of any church that calls itself Christian needs to be making Jesus, and the Christian Faith that arises from him, the central feature of its ministry. Belief in the basics of Christian Faith (a personal God, the actual resurrection of Jesus, the ongoing presence of the Holy Spirit, and a life lived in accordance with those realities) provides an intellectually consistent basis for also affirming the eternal worth and significance of human life, relationships, morals, and accomplishments. It gives a grounded hope in times of loss and defeat and says that how we treat others and the world around us is not a matter of time and culture but of divine decree.

It also challenges some of the assumptions and prejudices of secularism, reminding all of us that scientists and historians and other highly educated folks also have their blind spots and can be just as irrationally stubborn as any religious fundamentalist. The lengths to which some will go to discount what are, to any fair-minded observer, clear demonstrations of the divine does not reflect well on claims to objectivity. If Americans were more willing to seriously listen to people in the two thirds world instead of taking a paternalistic, condescending attitude towards them, they might learn a few things. Calling for justice for an African while at the same time discounting her claims to divine healing as being “primitive” even though there are plenty of witnesses to that healing is not nearly as enlightened as we’d like to think.

Let me now try to bring all of this home. In our day there is no need for a church if all it’s about are activities that can be found elsewhere. The days of the church as a community hub are over. If, however, a church has thought through the implications of faith in Jesus, it can offer a solid rationale for all human activity that cannot be found in social clubs, political parties, entertainment, or even various charity works, but which endows all of these things with great and eternal significance. If a church can go beyond the level of thought and theology to an active relationship with God in Christ, if people can actually encounter and experience the Holy Spirit in and through that congregation, then not only will people’s thinking be changed but so will their lives.

And a changed life, filled with hope and the Presence of a loving God, is something you cannot get at Starbuck’s.

Blessings!