Sometimes I read this stupid christian rag (magazine) called relevant. I think it is funny but it is rooted deeply in what I think is precisely the problem with most Christian preachers and most definitely why it is so difficult for me to go to our churches. In the attempt to say something to this culture, this time, this set of human experiences we have begun to act as if the gospel does not have its own definition of relevance or its own cultural framework. Somehow this generation, this time, this space is primary over and against all other frameworks.
For the past several weeks I have been on the road preaching on Sunday's. To be honest I no longer enjoy these preaching gigs. It is not that I think preaching is a stupid practice (which by way I do) it is that when I am on the road preaching it is very hard to find a community wherein worship actually happens. You see in our attempt to be relevant we have made church services into preaching moments filled with the psycho-babble of self-help, self actualization and self-fulfillment and forgot that worship is centered on the body of Christ coming to feast on the presences of Jesus at the table. We have simply forgotten Jesus and made church about us gleaning some life transformative lesson.
Let me say this boldly, "Preaching is idolatry when it is divorced from the Eucharist." Preachers who do not actively move their communities towards the constant practice of the Eucharist are nothing short of false prophets.
I have heard the endless babble of the preachers telling me that in their communities it is different, it is hard, it is impossible etc. . . .. In fact one of my colleagues recently said to me, "in the trenches of the church it is a battle to keep it at one Sunday a month." Another said, "We have to be out in an hour and I like to give them a full sermon every week." Blah, blah, blah...... Such excuse making, such avoiding the radical presence of Jesus is a tragic sin. Tragic because the very one who can heal the self-absorbed nature of our Churches is kept at bay as we attempt to offer man made healing through yet another mission statement, another program or another culturally relevant sermon series.
I will never forget being in San Miguel Chica, Guatemala back in 1987. I went to a small village which hosted approximately two hundred orphaned children from the Guatemalan civil war. One day I was sitting with the priest asking him how he and his community coped with the devastation of these children's lives. He smiled and said, ". . . before the war we had Mass three times a week. We found that after the war if we were going to survive and keep our eyes on Jesus we were going to have to eat on him more frequently." Pausing he continued, "you protestants don't get it because you still don't believe in miracles." I found out a few days later that Mass took place a minimum of three times a day and often five times a day.
The family I lived with had four children of their own and nine orphaned children from the war. Everyday they went to early morning Mass and evening Mass-- the mother told me a few days before I was to leave. "Michael, in Jesus you will find a food that can fulfill your life. In Jesus you will find a food that can give you hope. In Jesus you will find a food that will heal. Go Son, and eat on Jesus." To me this sounds an aweful lot like Wesley's duty of constant communion!
The consequences of this idolatry might be the most serious we have ever suffered. The consequences of this idolatry finally says we can heal ourselves we don't need the miracle worker Jesus anymore. One more new theology, one more new innovative worship ideal, one more reverberation of cultural relevance will fix our problems. Damn lets just sing the 539th verse of "Just as I am!" and see if that won't fill our altars the way it did once upon a never.
Pastor's who use the cheap excuses that their congregations don't want Jesus radically fail their calling by failing to offer Jesus.
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
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4 reflections:
I believe that you are suffering from a fundamental confusion. Offering Jesus is not the same thing as serving communion.
Jesus offered himself for some months in Judah and Samaria without offering communion. People met him and had their lives transformed withouth taking communion.
Offering communion is one way to present Jesus among many others.
You write like you have some kind of hang-up on communion. That is not untypical of those with a conceptual or spiritual confusion.
This is not to object to holding communion in remembrance of Jeus, but it is not the only way to remember Jesus, or to offer Jesus to others, or to receive Jesus into one's life.
Proclaiming the Kingdom of God, participating in the Kingdom of God involves a lot more than offering communion at least once a week.
If our were Baptist, Disciples of Christ free church or a host of other denominations your thoughts might be correct. However, unlike those traditions our theology is not memorialist. That is, we do not believe that what is happening in the sacrament is merely a remembrance or merely some form ritual practice. For those of us related the Methodist, Episcopal, Catholic part of the Church-- unlike many who come out of the German reformation-- sacrament is a unique offering of God's grace wherein God is constantly and consistently acting. To use Wesley's theology one might say sacrament is an act-- not the only act-- but the ordinary act-- wherein grace is imparted.
I chanced upon your post while investigating blogs for Stillwater.
An interesting discussion. As a Muslim, I can't opine on the theological arguments you make (though, as always, I'm intrigued by the infinite variety of understandings of the Eucharist that exist within Christianity), but it seems to me that this ongoing struggle on the part of churches to avoid parishioners "tuning out" is yet another, sad sign of the rampant narcissism and spiritual immaturity of contemporary American civilization. There's no room for the Transcendant as we rush to accumulate more stuff and satisfy every urge and whim.
Your point about the dubious value of traditional preaching is on the mark, I think, and applies outside Christian circles as well. We live in an age of such pick & choose postmodern eclecticism that one can no longer take traditional values for granted. The only "sell" that works today is the soft one, as it were.
P.S. I use "traditional values" in a looser sense than is common in the media. I'm referring to basic spiritual values and priorities as opposed to specific social teachings.
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