24 And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, 25 not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Heb. 10
I was reading an article by Wayne Martindale, C. S. Lewis, Reluctant Churchman in which she showed from Lewis’ writing that church attendance something Lewis hoped he could do without. For Lewis it was people came in all shapes and sizes. Ordinary people, even odd people were the vessels in which God worked to create great changes in him. The church or the body of Christ was the place in which people learned to love.
Any of us can love somebody we look up to or appreciate. It is quite another matter to love people more difficult. Odd people who don't fit into our comfortable equations will stretch love in unexpected places.
For a long time God has shown me when a church resembles more of the Community of Mayberry on the Andy Griffin show we will be more inclined to be surprised by joy and love. One of the best TV commedies were there was a mix of interesting and off beat characters.
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| Floyd the Barber (with glasses) still worked was suffering w dementia. He was still part of their lives. |
Lewis did not like the hymns or the sermons. He liked theology books and reason writings. One thing about a book is you can control it. You can close the book and not return to it. If you don't like it or don't agree with it, it can be sent away and become a distant memory. On the other hand books can become a much needed friend. How many books I have read that challenged my thinking and made me a better person?
A church opens the doors and invites whoever into it. The gospel at the core of its message reaches out to the down and outer, the poor, the disadvantaged, the common person. Our quest for friendship leads us to the noble, the beautiful, the brilliant, the most liked and loved. The church is the exact opposite of that.
One of the constructs of our modern thinking comes with setting up borders in dealing with negative, toxic people. Have you ever noticed there is a lot of these people?
Some of these people are very close to us, a parent, sibling, lifelong associate, a neighbor. Don’t get me wrong I actually understand borders. But borders and difficult people need to be loved. It is the hard cases that is at the heart of the matter. Certainly we cannot tolerate sins that abuse us, but there are relationships that require us to show God's love.
If there are relationships that are destroying you, then please consider setting up borders and leaving a toxic relationship. I believe the Lord will show you when is a good time to show love and forgive and yet stop the destructive relationship.
If we separate ourselves from every toxic person we come into contact there will be very, very few people left. We need to develop a little thicker skin and take the bull's-eye off our back. Not everything is hate, there're a lot of things that are really just a lively debate.
I wish more young people we're involved in BS (bull shit) sessions where anything could be discussed and debated. Ideas explored and challenged where you hear and see what was being communicated. More importantly today to be able to feel the argument. If you could have such a group that met every week you can worked through all the little hangups you come across. Right now we live through our little machines and if we don't like something we block it out or ignore it. We only read or look at things that reinforce our little worlds. Differences become toxic and are removed.
Which brings us back to church. There is never a perfect local church, each church has its own flaws, hypocrites, and weirdos. There are some mature and functional people to be sure. When you look at the whole of the group it may be challenging to find those mature and balanced, but they are there. It is here that Jesus told us to love one another. It is here that I think you will discover many surprising things about yourself and how God works. I prefer to look at it like Andy of Mayberry and see the humor of it. In work I it is the one thing I miss in my 30 years of working in special ed. Every day there was something funny as well as profound about the human experience. I miss the quirky and unusual discoveries that came each day. That part of my job I was never bored with.
In my 40 years of going to church how God works with the dysfunctional, the weird, and offbeat is what fascinated me. We need a church that is not an entertainment center. There are people who are harder to love and we need that if were going to understand God's love. A church full of common regular people will teach us a lot more about ourselves.
There is a subject that I wish to explore which is seeing things with God’s humor. Keep walking
