Is the Church Irrelevant?

This morning Faye, one of the great pillars of my parish, dropped by church to do some photocopying. We chatted for a while, and I asked the usual questions about how she and her family were doing during these hot summer months. She happily reported that her granddaughter was doing very well, but this young adult raised in the church was not inclined to attend worship. "What can you do, Pastor?" Faye said. "She says she's a very spiritual person, but she doesn't like organized religion. She has her own ideas. I'm certainly not going to push anything on her."

I think Faye's attitude toward her granddaughter's spirituality is perfectly appropriate. Everybody has their own spiritual path to walk, and one of the greatest errors the Christian faith has made over the centuries has been the attempt to force dogma down the throats of the unwilling.

But, given the life I live, I can't help but try to share my love of the faith and my reasoning for continuing in the religious institution in which I was raised. If we take wars and persecutions, Crusades and Inquisitions, sexual and financial scandals out of the picture, the Church as an institution still has, to my mind, a great deal to recommend it.

The English word "church" comes to us via a twisted and tortured path through Middle English and Germanic words taken from the Greek kyriake oikia meaning "Lord's House." What is a house if not the home of a family? The fancy word we in English use to describe "churchy" things is ecclesiastic, which also comes to us from the Greek. Ecclesia is the word the New Testament uses which we normally translate as "church." It means an assembly or gathering of people who have been called together.

I can't imagine anything more necessary or poignant in today's individualistic society than human gathering. Recently, I was hanging out in my local Starbuck's and I noticed at a nearby table about four or five twenty-somethings drinking overpriced coffee and chatting animatedly. Besides their tattoos and piercings, the young people reminded me of myself and my college friends from back in the day. But there was one glaring difference: each one of these beautiful young people held some kind of electronic device in their laps under the table and were busily texting or facebook-ing, or something while they were supposedly enjoying each others' company. I wanted to go over and tell them, "Could you please put the damn iphones away and just be present with each other?!"

Our technology is great, but it seems to have robbed us of the ability to be with one another. I believe a big part of our humanity still craves the physical company of the family. We need to know that we have a home full of people who are willing to understand us, who share our thoughts, and to whom our presence is special and valuable. This is what the Church, at her best, should give us: community. We are united by our shared story-telling and by the shared rituals which help us navigate the transitions of our lives.

Besides just the act of being together, the Church also provides the shared wisdom of the past. At weddings or funerals I like to explain that part of our ritual is the reading of really old stuff. When we hear really old words, we know what we feel has been felt by others throughout the centuries, and will be felt again by others in the future. Reading these words makes us feel less alone.

As warm and fuzzy as our personal spirituality may make us feel, it still remains true that none of us can manage very much on our own. What we do together can be so much more powerful than what we do as individuals. Last week my parish hosted an organizing meeting for Interfaith Hospitality Network. We will be the first congregation in the Northeast neighborhoods of Philadelphia to provide shelter for temporarily homeless families. I couldn't very well hostel a family of six or so in my house, but, with the help of the church two families--victims of our precarious economic times--will get a chance to stay together in a clean, safe environment (which happens to be our church basement) while Interfaith works to find them permanent housing. My congregation is doing this in partnership with a non-denominational mega church, a large Roman Catholic parish, and smaller congregations of Methodists, Quakers, United Church of Christ, Church of God in Christ, and Jewish brothers and sisters. Totally freakin' awesome if you ask me.

Jesus told his disciples that they would do even greater works than he had done if they showed a little faith (see John 14:12). I am so thrilled to belong to a family of people who are making a material difference in the lives of some very vulnerable folks--simply because it is the decent, loving, and compassionate thing to do. We expect nothing in return. Simple love of humanity put into practice. You can't get more spiritual than that!

Thanks for reading, my friends. Please leave me a comment to let me know you were here. Also, to find out more about Interfaith Hospitality Network, click on www.philashelter.org.