All of the churches that I have gone to
in the U.K. have the same format: First, the congregation sings some
songs. Then, someone preaches a sermon. The songs and sermon format
has been a universal experience for me across both traditional and
charismatic churches, but I have found myself wondering if the
songs and sermon are at all related to a relationship with the
creator of the universe.
My doubts regarding these methods come
from a desire to connect with God. I feel like I am searching a wall
made of many different materials, looking for a section made of
transparent material so that I can see the person on the other side
clearly.
But I know so little about God that I
almost despair at ever knowing how to reach Him. Will He like it if I
sing on Sunday morning? Will He say anything through the words of a
preacher? Is there anything at all that I can do with my physical
self that will ever make a difference to a spiritual God? Maybe not.
I start to imagine that maybe I should
just abandon the weekly gamble of churching, maybe I should just
focus on my own relationship with my heavenly father by spending time
alone with my thoughts. But at the same time, something in me has
said that this wouldn't be right...
Self-Diagnosis
It has taken me far too long, but I
think that I have seen which path I am being tempted down by these
ideas and feelings. Part of me wants to make everything easier to
understand. Part of me wants to find an excuse to ignore the physical part of my faith. The earthy. The human. Part of me just wants to settle on
the easier-to-handle idea that faith is really all about knowledge
and thoughts. I am being tempted to become a gnostic.
Gnosticism is an old mistake in
Christianity. The term comes from the Greek word for 'knowledge', and
is effectively about worshipping knowledge and internal things, while
dismissing physical and outward things as unimportant. I can
sympathise with all the men who have started thinking that "this
world is doomed to death one day anyway, so why worry about it? I
will just focus on what will last eternally, which is my spirit and
my God..."
The Full Picture
It starts sounding quite reasonable.
But it is, I am frustrated to admit, not taking into account how God
feels about the physical world. When creating the world, God called
it "good", not average, or bad. But an even bigger piece of
evidence than that is that He loved the world so much that He
actually stepped down into it. God got His hands dirty, He got
involved in our daily lives.
While exploring the character of God in
his book "Incomparable", Andrew Wilson looks at the
biblical phrase that "The Word became flesh":
"How could the transcendent God become so imminent? How was spirit now body? How could someone so holy become so humble? To this day, the incarnation, far more than the crucifixion or resurrection, is the biggest problem Jews and Muslims have with the gospel...
This is the biggest of all miracles. If you stop and think about it, the amazing things Jesus does in the Gospels are not at all surprising if you believe in the incarnation. If Jesus was fully God... then it would be totally bizarre if the storm didn't go quiet when he told it to. If Jesus really was the Word made flesh, then it would be far stranger if he hadn't risen from the dead than if he had. People who struggle with Easter simply show they haven't understood Christmas."
So Jesus arriving
in-the-flesh showed us that God cares about the practical world. If
we keep this in mind, we will be guided to put our beliefs into
practice. While discussing four terms, Eugene Peterson writes in his
book "Christ Plays in Ten Thousand Places":
"If the usefulness of the term "spirituality" is in it's vague but comprehensive suggestiveness of everything Beyond and More and Deep, the term "Jesus" is useful as it gathers all the diffused vagueness into a tight, clear, light-filled focus...
By accepting Jesus as the final and definitive revelation of God, the Christian church makes it impossible for us to make up our own customized variations of spiritual life and get away with it, not that we don't try. But we can't get around him or away from him: Jesus is the incarnation of God, God among us...
Jesus prevents us from thinking that life is a matter of ideas to ponder or concepts to discuss... Jesus keeps our feet on the ground, attentive to children, in conversation with ordinary people, sharing meals with friends and strangers, listening to the wind, observing the wildflowers, touching the sick and wounded, praying simply and unselfconsciously. Jesus insists that we deal with God right here and now, in the place we find ourselves and with the people we are with. Jesus is God here and now."
Trusting in
God's Example
So Jesus has
already shown me, by entering and engaging with the physical world
personally, that He cares about it. As His follower, so should I. If
Jesus sung to God in the temple, and listened to commentary on the
holy scriptures, then it's probably a good idea for me to do that
too.
The habits of
churches will still be physical. But God seems to have told me that
just because something is physical, that doesn't prevent it also
being spiritual. I will push myself to keep attending church when I
don't feel like it makes a difference, because I will trust in God's
example instead of my own feelings.
Image source: http://www.herbalcell.com/blog/life-as-a-minimalist
