“Who can be good, if not made so by loving? -- St. Augustine
Not long ago, I was asked by a college student how I could stand to go to Church, how I could stand the hypocrisy of Christians. I had one of my rare inspirations, when I know the right thing to say, and I replied, ‘The only hypocrite I have to worry about on Sunday morning is myself.’
The Church has had a hardening of the arteries in the sixteen hundred or so years since Ambrose, then the bishop of Milan, welcomed the convert Augustine into the body of Christ. Theological fine-tuning...has led us to forget that Christian worship is not, in the words of Margaret Miles, ‘primarily a gathering of the like-minded’ but a gathering of people ‘to be with one another in the acknowledgment that human existence originates in and is drawn towards love.’
Even when I find Church boring, I try to hold this in mind as a possibility: like all the other fools who have dragged themselves to church on Sunday morning, including the pastor, I am there because I need to be reminded that love can be at the center of all things, if we will only keep it there. The worship service will most likely not offer an aesthetically pleasing experience, great theological insight, or emotional release, although any and all of those things are possible, and precious on the rare occasions when they occur.”
- The Cloister Walk, by Kathleen Norris
Even at my lowest moments, when my faith is sorely tested in God and man, I am still foolish enough to believe in the power of gathering together as believers. That as Jesus says, '...where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am also." Paul says that "...the message of the Cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God."
You all sustain me. Thanks for being willing to be fools for Christ. You are making a difference in my life and in the lives of others.
No comments:
Post a Comment