We had a new person in the pews this morning. I wish I could report the same kind of explosive growth as JG but that's how different it is, we're another voice in the wilderness and so you don't have any novelty, any supressed yearning (for the most part) because if they wanted to go to church, there are several to choose from.
But after a period of separation from church she's hit the pavement again trying to find a fellowship for herself. She even stayed for adult education and bought the study guidse and is planning on coming again next week, amazing stuff since I thought that today's sermon was so-so. We chatted for a while and she mentioned the searching she had done and some of the questions that she had. She found it refreshing that the people she had encountered were completely cool with the questioning, and she mentioned that at other outposts of the kingdom of God her very questioning was looked askance at.
What have we become? (not pointing fingers, just asking the question about the body of Christ as a whole) when we cannot welcome the questions of the wandering soul without scorn that they haven't already found the answers? It seemed as if she had run into churches that expected obedience and an understanding of the rules before she even walked through the doors. I shudder at the potential for damage that places like that can cause to people, not just those who are scared from the doors by the attitude, but also those who stick it out and join such legalistic fellowships, learn the "rules" (as if the gospel had rules!) and think that they have found freedom in Christ through the law.
If my judgmental tone isn't enough to clue you into what my attitude was, I taked about the Lutheran understanding of Law and Gospel, how doubt was the sign of health in the faith (I did give her this month's copy of the Lutheran, all about doubt) instead of sickness, and told her that the easy answers are seldom the satisfying ones, and that we could get together whenever and explore the questions. She seemed happy at the suggestion.
Our churches are the ones in decline, their chrches are the ones in ascendency, and yet we are all the body of Christ. I am confused, but pleased to have been able to show her that some of us welcome the questions, not because we have all the answers, but because we love the conversations.
p.s. Caitlyn also knows all of Now the Feast and Celebration, she sang it with me this morning.
Eternal giver of surprise and comfort, look kindly upon us. Your love has emboldened us, given us strength and fitted us for the road ahead. May the people we meet find Christ in, on, under and through us, in the gentleness of human contact, the love of neighbor, and the willingness to entertain the questions that plague their hearts. You have not given us all of the answers, just the faith to open the questions up to the light and see where they will lead us. Keep us in faith so that our witness may be to the love that has conquered death and has set us free to be Christ to one another.
