I went to church last Sunday for the first time in months. I’m not convinced of the necessity of church, though I’ve been a member of several churches in my life. I can’t say what I hoped to find on this particular Sunday; I know the Creator of the Universe isn’t bound by the confines of architecture or impressed by the drapery. I am sure, from God's vantage point, outside the realm of time, humanity's methods of worship must seem pathethic. Why put up with it? Why not drop the big asteroid?
I was surprised to discover the message from the pastor was about the church’s struggle to stay financially afloat. The economy has dried up many people’s natural desire to give, and tithes are at an all-time low. I had the thought that if I won the lottery how cool it would be to do a Peter Sellers type thing and start throwing handfuls of fifty dollar bills. A battery operated fan might help the bills flutter down on the people. People would be clamoring for the money, and probably there would be punches thrown, even by the pastor.
It would instantly solve the church’s problems. In theory, the money would make the church and its people bind together, intertwine and grow, like tree limbs. But life is rarely so simple or miraculous. God seems to be entirely fickle about who gets the money. On a superficial level, it seems the more aggressive pastors are about reminding their congregations about tithing, the more prosperous the churches become.
On Friday, two days before church, I had a date. I hadn’t had a date in nearly a year. She lived on a farm with her three children. The only thought I’d had, as Friday neared, was to call it off. I couldn’t see myself as being a good candidate for a relationship and that level of responsibility. But is God so practical? If God suddenly told me to start another family, wouldn’t I be a fool not to listen? Maybe I would have a prophet or two. What if God said to me in a dream, "Son, here's the winning lotto numbers. Play them or I'll smite thee." Of course I would play, are you kidding? But how could I know if the Lord was speaking to me or 'the Dark Lord?' What is the acid test of knowing? If there is a Devil, it surely smart enough to impersonate anyone.
The date went fine; it was a pleasant night without rain. We went to a number of art galleries and ended up eating Japanese food. Three women paid a good deal of attention to me without much encouragement from me. It made me wonder if there was a natural law in effect. The law of attraction should, in order to be a law, work the same in all cases. If it works with carrots and tree branches, it should work with human beings. Right?
With human beings, the law is turned upside down. Other women, seeing an attractive woman in the company of an ordinary man, naturally assume the ordinary man is anything but ordinary. The women therefore want the man all the more. What has happened? The credibility gap has been bridged.
A church operates in a similar way. A pastor can build his church on the foundation of his own integrity. When I find myself believing in the lotto, or only going to the prosperous churches, then I will have to wonder about my faith. If I get that low, it will be like the Stevie Wonder song, "When we believe in things we don't understand, we suffer. Superstition is the way...."
I have an idea that God is all about the grafting process, like in tree branches. Our faith is the tape that helps the graft take. And when it has taken we are connected where once we were strangers.
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