"I don't have to go to church to be a good Christian."
This is something I hear quite a lot, sometimes even from members of my own church. And I suppose, at some level, it could be true. A man named Laurence Peter is famous for saying, "Going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than going to the garage makes you a car." I'm no expert in logic, but it seems that someone who is could knock a hole or two in that statement. Perhaps I could become famous for making a quote similar to the first one above, "I don't have to visit or call my father to be a good son." Or maybe not.
Let's play with the first statement above. What if it said, "If I am a good Christian, I don't have to go to church." It doesn't work for me, and that's not just because I'm a pastor. I grew up in a family where we went to church. Period. No one ever asked on Saturday night, "Do we have to go to church?" We just went. Anything else we thought we needed to get done that day could wait until after church. But when I went off to college, I fell out of the habit. There were many good excuses why I didn't go. But most simply, once I quit going, it became easier and easier just to stay away. When my mom asked if I was going to church, I'd lie and say that I did.
It's when I encountered Luther's Small Catechism that I began to look at it differently. In his explanation to the first article of the Apostle's Creed, after having enumerated all the things that our heavenly Father has done, and continues to do for us, and that He does all this out of Fatherly goodness and mercy, Luther wraps it up by saying, "For all this, it is my duty to thank and praise, serve and obey Him."
Let's play with that statement one more time. "If I am a good Christian, why would I not want to go to church?" Being a good Christian is about coming to an understanding of what God has done for us, what God is doing for us, and what God promises to for us in this life and the life to come. And when we fully realize how much God has done, is doing, and will do for us, our desire to worship him should come as naturally as exhaling follows inhaling. In other words, we worship God not in order to be a Christian, but as a response to God's goodness.
And before you begin to think that you can do that all by yourself, listen to the author of Hebrews "Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near." (Hebrews 10:24-25) We come together for that worship for the mutual encouragement of our fellow Christians.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Monday, April 2, 2012
I don't believe in God anymore
"I don't believe in God anymore."
This simple assertion from a young man got my attention. To be frank, it's not the sort of thing that I hear a lot, so it took me a few seconds to gather myself, trying to think how to respond. In those moments I searched his eyes to read what was there. I don't think he had said it to challenge me, or to offend me. Instead, it was a brutally honest confession from someone who needed to get it off his chest, and saying it to someone who just might take him seriously.
When, in those moments, brilliance escaped me, I simply asked, "Why is that?" As soon as it left my mouth, I regretted the clumsy question, certain it would put him on the defensive. But he didn't back down, or take offense, "It's because I prayed to God for something to happen. I prayed for it a lot, and it didn't happen. So I don't believe in God anymore."
For this young man, it was a deal breaker. He had believed in God up until the time that God had failed him, and the deal was now off. It made a lot of sense, really. This thing for which he prayed "a lot" and with apparent sincerity had meant a lot to him. I didn't press him for details, but I don't think it was anything frivolous. In his mind, God had failed him.
The Bible is full of instances when God acted decisively and obviously, leaving none to doubt that He is the true God. And there are times when we sorely wish that God would so act in our lives: when a loved one is stricken with a terminal illness, when our financial foundation is crumbling around us, when we are racked with constant pain. It would be so much easier to believe in God if, in those moments, God would decisively act.
The Bible also contains instances when God does not act decisively or obviously, and even some instances when God blatantly does nothing in response to pleas of His people. King David prayed and fasted for days on end in the hopes that his young son would not die. The son died. St. Paul prayed three times that the "thorn in the flesh" afflicting him would be taken from him. God did not.
Jesus was approached early in the gospel of Mark by a leper who said to Him, "If you would want to, You are able to heal me." This seems to get at the essence of Christian prayer. Jesus, Himself, taught His disciples to pray to their heavenly Father, "Thy will be done." Our prayer is a prayer of trust that God can do that for which we pray. But, as Jesus teaches, our prayers to God must allow for God's will.
I didn't have an easy answer for the young man. But I pray that he never, really, stops believing in (and praying to) God.
This simple assertion from a young man got my attention. To be frank, it's not the sort of thing that I hear a lot, so it took me a few seconds to gather myself, trying to think how to respond. In those moments I searched his eyes to read what was there. I don't think he had said it to challenge me, or to offend me. Instead, it was a brutally honest confession from someone who needed to get it off his chest, and saying it to someone who just might take him seriously.
When, in those moments, brilliance escaped me, I simply asked, "Why is that?" As soon as it left my mouth, I regretted the clumsy question, certain it would put him on the defensive. But he didn't back down, or take offense, "It's because I prayed to God for something to happen. I prayed for it a lot, and it didn't happen. So I don't believe in God anymore."
For this young man, it was a deal breaker. He had believed in God up until the time that God had failed him, and the deal was now off. It made a lot of sense, really. This thing for which he prayed "a lot" and with apparent sincerity had meant a lot to him. I didn't press him for details, but I don't think it was anything frivolous. In his mind, God had failed him.
The Bible is full of instances when God acted decisively and obviously, leaving none to doubt that He is the true God. And there are times when we sorely wish that God would so act in our lives: when a loved one is stricken with a terminal illness, when our financial foundation is crumbling around us, when we are racked with constant pain. It would be so much easier to believe in God if, in those moments, God would decisively act.
The Bible also contains instances when God does not act decisively or obviously, and even some instances when God blatantly does nothing in response to pleas of His people. King David prayed and fasted for days on end in the hopes that his young son would not die. The son died. St. Paul prayed three times that the "thorn in the flesh" afflicting him would be taken from him. God did not.
Jesus was approached early in the gospel of Mark by a leper who said to Him, "If you would want to, You are able to heal me." This seems to get at the essence of Christian prayer. Jesus, Himself, taught His disciples to pray to their heavenly Father, "Thy will be done." Our prayer is a prayer of trust that God can do that for which we pray. But, as Jesus teaches, our prayers to God must allow for God's will.
I didn't have an easy answer for the young man. But I pray that he never, really, stops believing in (and praying to) God.
Why would I want to go to church? It's full of hypocrites!
"Why would I want to go to church? It's full of hypocrites."
I can say with all honesty that if anyone were to make that charge against the church I serve, that they are absolutely wrong. We are far from full.
That half of the charge having been put aside, what about the claim of hypocrisy in the church? If those making the charge are saying that hypocrisy is defined by people who go to church to assert their sinlessness to the rest of the world, I would have to again call, foul. There may be church-going people who look down their noses at those who do not attend worship, but that isn't what we teach here.
What we teach and accept is what the Bible says about us: "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say we have not sinned, we make God a liar, and His word is not in us" (1 John 1:8, 10). The reason any of us should be going to church is because we know the truth about ourselves, that we are sinners. Martin Luther said it this way in his catechism, "We daily sin much, and deserve nothing but punishment."
With these facts, then, our situation looks pretty bleak. But you may have noticed in my quote above from 1 John, that a verse is missing. And this verse holds the key for why one would want to go to church. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). Jesus gave us the Church that we might have a place to gather together, all us broken sinners, to confess our sins, to receive the healing balm of His word, to be washed in the waters of baptism, to be fed His very body and blood at His supper, and to console one another as we daily struggle against sin.
Why should you want to go to church? Because you're a sinner like the rest of us. And trust me, there's room here for plenty more.
I can say with all honesty that if anyone were to make that charge against the church I serve, that they are absolutely wrong. We are far from full.
That half of the charge having been put aside, what about the claim of hypocrisy in the church? If those making the charge are saying that hypocrisy is defined by people who go to church to assert their sinlessness to the rest of the world, I would have to again call, foul. There may be church-going people who look down their noses at those who do not attend worship, but that isn't what we teach here.
What we teach and accept is what the Bible says about us: "If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we say we have not sinned, we make God a liar, and His word is not in us" (1 John 1:8, 10). The reason any of us should be going to church is because we know the truth about ourselves, that we are sinners. Martin Luther said it this way in his catechism, "We daily sin much, and deserve nothing but punishment."
With these facts, then, our situation looks pretty bleak. But you may have noticed in my quote above from 1 John, that a verse is missing. And this verse holds the key for why one would want to go to church. "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9). Jesus gave us the Church that we might have a place to gather together, all us broken sinners, to confess our sins, to receive the healing balm of His word, to be washed in the waters of baptism, to be fed His very body and blood at His supper, and to console one another as we daily struggle against sin.
Why should you want to go to church? Because you're a sinner like the rest of us. And trust me, there's room here for plenty more.
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