#11 Church is the new scapegoat.

Have you ever heard someone say, "I'm spiritual, but not religious."?  I have been really close to saying it myself except you know I'm a seminary trained employee of the church, which means I am the poster board of religion.  I grew up in it, and I have pretty much never strayed.  Even during my period in college of searching out other faiths to see if one fits better, I was almost Buddhist you know, I still attended a church and my campus ministry.  So, ummm...I'm religious, but not spiritual.

When people say that they love Jesus and his ideals, but they don't like the church or the term Christian, I get it. My reasons for looking for a new faith community were the same reasons people have today.  People have done absolutely awful things in the name of Christ, from war to cheesy t-shirts that co-opt a corporate logo and give it a pseudo-Christian spin.  The Church has a 2000 year laundry list of mistakes, but does that mean it is evil?

In today's culture, people are suspect of the organized and established religion.  I can't blame them.  We love to blame other people and organizations for the struggles of the world.  Today, with Catholic sex abuse scandal, Westboro Baptist "Church," and crazy people saying things like God ordained natural disasters to punish us for homosexuality or whatever "sin" they think is the worst at the time.  Therefore, we have decided to use Christianity/the Church as a scapegoat.  If the church hadn't gotten involved in politics the nation would be in better shape.  If Christians would butt out there would be less wars because Just War Theory is bogus.  If the church was more like Jesus we would absolutely be involved with it, but it isn't.  It's actually the reason for all of the ills in the world.

You know what is amazing about the church.  It is a mix of people who meet together as broken, awful, sinful, wounded, and unloved people to hope for a life of fullness, grace, and love.  The Church has done awful things because it is made up of broken people.  We do awful things when we forget that we are in fact people who are capable of being wrong and horrible to each other.  Let's stop blaming the Church for our problems and start trying to authentically do our faith with other people who are hurting.  Then, we should call that the Church.

#10 Being God-forsaken brings meaning to the Resurrection.

Whenever I hear the song "I'm Yours" by Jason Mraz, I want to, and often do, rant about how he says that it is our God-forsaken right to be loved, looooved, loved.  I didn't realize that God had in fact forsaken our right to be loved.  I think he probably meant God-given or something like that, and I can't believe none of the producers asked him about that line.  Whatever, we all have words we misuse, so I don't hate Jason Mraz or even think he's stupid, just made a very public mistake.

The song always makes me think about that idea of God-forsakenness (there is red squiggle under forsakenness, which I do not agree with at all).  Does God really forsake things?  I mean I've driven through Kansas on I-70 and it is boring and as much as I hate to say it there is still beauty and God in it.  If God hasn't forsaken Kansas, then God is not going to forsake anything.  See what I did there.

It's Holy Week so it seems the time to think about forsakenness some more.  I am reminded of Jesus' haunting cry from the cross, "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me!"  It is a moment that should bring a little confusion to anybody who believes in the Incarnation.  How is it possible for God to have forsaken Jesus, since Jesus is God?  It's the kind of question that makes my brain hurt.  How does God abandon Godself?

In reality, does God really abandon anyone?  Jesus on the cross is having a real feeling of being abandoned.  In his being, Jesus does not feel like God is moving or in this situation at all.  God feels exactly what the rest of us feel from time to time.  God feels like God is not present and does not care.  God feels forsaken.  We all have those moments of feeling like God has left the building and doesn't give a flip about the awful, excruciating, and all-consuming pain and grief that we are feeling.  Does that mean that it is okay to feel that way from time to time?  I mean Jesus did.  Obviously, most of the time we aren't dying a horribly painful death when we shout the open of Psalm 22.  Usually, it's because the peanut butter has run out, or something equally as horrible.

In that moment when Jesus felt forsaken and we feel forsaken, it might be good to realize that God is present.  God is present in the junk as well as the joy..  God is present in suffering.  God is present in Kansas. God is present in our abandonment.  God is present.  I believe that God is present all around us, and that Good Friday and Holy Saturday are the days when we are to feel with the disciples that feeling of abandonment or forsakenness.  We are to face our own fears, failures, suffering, and grief.  Then, see the Crucified God present in the suffering and participating in our suffering.  The power of the Resurrection and God's invitation to you in it will become significantly more meaningful if you force yourself to face your reality of pain and rejection and empty peanut butter jars.  Because we are never truly forsaken, but we have to face the pain we cause and feel before we can experience the joy of new life in Resurrection.

Did I just write a sermon?  What are your thoughts on forsakenness and Jesus' cry from cross?

Although I didn't cite anyone in this post, I do want you to know that I have been heavily influenced by Jurgen Moltmann and Peter Rollins on this idea.

#9 Protestant Christians suck at Rituals.

I've been thinking a lot about rituals.  You may not know this about me but I love the ritual of Holy Communion.  I think it is a moment when we intentionally enter into a reality that is always around us.  It is beautiful and mystical and most of all meaningful.  Rituals are ways that we are intentional with our rhythms to help participate more deeply with the world around us.  Here's what I figured out recently: Protestant Christians suck at ritualizing our faith.  In fact, I think we are scared to be too ritualistic because we fear we'll become Catholic (how about the new Pope, huh? Added hits with that comment).

I don't know if fear of becoming Catholic is really it because the Lutheran church kept most of the rituals and the Episcopal church has definitely keep up with rituals.  Do they have meaning?  I don't know I'm not really in these denominations.  And of course every local church has its own rituals.  For instance, I once heard a story of a monk who would bring his cat to lead morning prayers.  He would hook the leash on the lectern while he led the prayer time.  The same place still has a hook on a new lectern for the cat's leash because it became part of the tradition.  The monk had moved on to a different ministry setting, and on a visit asked why they had the hook on the lectern.  The answer was that they just always had, and it was part of how things worked there.  This act of bringing his cat to morning prayer created a culture that continued long after the man had left. (Side Note: I have no idea where I heard this story, if I retold it correctly, if this is remotely true, or why he kept his cat on a leash).

We have rituals that build just based on where we are that take on new meaning or are empty of meaning but we keep them out of comfort.  I think we have some work to do in the Protestant Traditions to bring our rituals home with us.  For instance, did you know that Jewish families celebrate most of their religious traditions in their homes more than at the synagogue.  The Sabbath has a set of rituals that happen in the home.  It's not just don't go to work instead go to church so that the pastor has to work on the holy day of rest but the rest of us don't kind of thing.  It is a ritual to remember our rhythms and set a pacing for our lives that centers around God.

I believe that we need a religious ritualization of the home.  I think we should set up a time to be in community as a family where we talk about how God works in this world.  It could be turning off the TV and  reading something together.  It could be talking to your teens about your faith and having them do the same (even God forbid your struggles with belief).  It could be flannel board hour at home with your two year old where you tell Bible stories.  It could be lighting a candle at sundown while saying a prayer together.  But we need a ritual at home to help make faith more than something that is done for an hour every Sunday and if your ambitious another hour on Wednesday.  Let's do church, religion, faith at home with the people see most.  Oh and atheist, you can even do this and talk about whatever your brand of atheism believes; science is the new Catholic, or humanism is the new Protestantism, or Nietzsche is the new Jesus, or whatever (I think I lost all the atheist with the first line, so if you made it this far, congrats, we must be friends).  Regardless of your belief, if you make a meaningful ritual out of it, then it becomes part of how you participate in a greater reality on an ongoing basis.