Whose Church is it Anyway?
Of course I mean the Church of England, or the Church in Wales where I spent much of my ministry. The Church which has tens of thousands of buildings filled (?) with faithful members; with all its little pastoral subdivisions called dioceses and parishes where bishops and incumbents and Synods rule unchallenged over the people, telling them where and how to worship, with what Prayer Books and hymn books. Whom does it belong to? The Bishops, the Vicars? The P.C.C.'s and subcommittees and teams etc.? The Anglican Communion worldwide?
WRONG.
It belongs to Jesus: Messiah, Lord of all Creation. And it does NOT consist of buildings or hymn and service books or Canon Law. Jesus died for it. He rose again for it, he taught it and poured out his Holy Spirit for it, sweated blood for it and suffered agonies for it - People, men and women and children. People in Kenya and Uganda, born and brought up in poverty and danger - the very real danger of animism (the worship of spirits, demons, call them what you will), and set free from that danger by the power of his Spirit, their lives changed and renewed by that same Spirit.
People in Britain and the United States, in possession of luxuries, machines, hot and cold running water - even computers such as I am using now! - that were unimaginable as little as fifty years ago to the vast majority in the Western world and are still unimaginable to the East and third world. People subjected to the dreadful pressures of advertising, fashion, cupidity and greed. People encouraged by the media - radio, T.V., newspapers and magazines - to spend their substance on things which begin to lose their savour from the moment they touch them: clothes, houses, cars, caravans; pleasure, pleasure and more pleasures. People who are encouraged to believe that such things are the whole end and aim of life and get angry if they are denied them for whatever reason.
All these people Jesus loves: he rejoices in their joys, agonises with them in their pain, dies with them in their deaths. And he calls them, invites them to met him, to be loved by him and healed by him and changed by him into new Life. He invites them to set all these things into their rightful place - second to him, for he is Lord.
Does this sound unfamiliar? If it does then all the machinery of religion, of churches and bishops and the rest - prayer books and hymns, liturgy, candles and committees - have failed to make him known. And if they go on failing then I am afraid we are in danger of being thrown with them onto the rubbish heap, because that failure is our fault, not his.
So here I am telling you again what I believe, with countless others over centuries: that what matters is getting to know Jesus as a Person as well as God, so that he can get to work on us, set right the things that are wrong in us, remake us like a car recalled by the manufacturers to put right the unintended but ingrown faults.
You don't have to believe this just because I say so: you must make up your own minds. The only thing is, don't shut your minds against Jesus like slamming a door in his face - that's no way to find truth. And remember I'm not the only person to say this sort of thing.
AND DON'T, whatever you do, imagine for a moment that you have rights over yourselves, over other people, and certainly not over God. For he made us and we are his - not our own! He gives us life and takes it away - or gives us New Life... We do not own him, manufacture him, design him or rule him; and any 'religion' that tells us we need to fashion him to suit our own theories and desires and preferences is a load of dangerous nonsense. In the face of this, do you want Him?
Or do you want to go on sitting in draughty, cold buildings (only Baptists and such-like seem to know how to heat their churches!) singing words that you knew as a child and now don't believe, listening to sermons that tell you about anything except the Living Lord, instead of turning to Life?
By all means question: look for Truth; doubt whether you have it yet. But you cannot and must not claim the right to doubt as a continuing policy of life - that leads to death. And don't, whatever you do, reckon there are no answers. There always are if you want them and look for them - Truth Himself will lead you to them! For anyone who like Pontius Pilate, wearily and cynically says, "What is truth?" in the face of God is dead already and is only waiting for the soil to be shovelled onto his coffin, and for Oblivion.....
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