Food, Family, and Forgiving the Church

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Chances are if you are reading this, then you have spent at least some portion of your adult life in a church.  And chances are, if you have spent some time in a church, then you have also experienced one of the cruelest truths of the Church- it is as hurtful as it is healing.

As I talk with and read more about people leaving the church, many of them do so from a place of pain and loneliness.  They feel alienated, isolated, like they didn't fit in that community.  Maybe it was because of their views on evolution, or because they were gay that they felt alienated.  Maybe it was because of how a pastor demeaned their doubts or patronized their ideas that they felt isolated.  Maybe it was because as they matured and became more intellectually aware, their faith remained prepubescent.

Whatever the reason, a place of healing and community became a place of hurt and isolation.

The truth is, that church, those people who made you feel hurt, isolated, and alone don't even know they did this to you.  And even if they did know, there is nothing they can do or say that will take away the pain.  You have been hurt, and you want them to feel the same.  But the only person who will ever be hurt is you.  Vengeance doesn't heal.

So how do we forgive the very people that have hurt us?  How do we rid ourselves of that pain?

It starts with a meal.

Now the good news is that every major faith tradition offers some kind of solution for righting wrongs and finding forgiveness.  But only one person ever offered himself as the solution.

Jesus' close friend and disciple, John, is given credit for writing the book of John and three other letters in the New Testament.  And he tells us that somewhere around AD 30, another guy named John showed up doing the strangest thing.  He was baptizing.

Jewish custom dictated that any convert to Judaism must partake in a ceremonial washing as part of the conversion process.  But John was baptizing other people (or as my friend Garry once famously said, "Cannonballs for Jesus").  Matthew, Mark, Luke, an historian named Josephus, and even the Qur'an all mention John...the Baptist.

Now, this obviously bothered the Jewish religious leaders of the day.  To baptize, to ceremonially cleanse people of their sins, required an authority that was unheard of, and totally against religious practice.  Only God can get rid of sin!  And so these religious leaders travel to see John in action, and they ask him under whose authority he is baptizing these people.  And he says, "You haven't met him yet.  But he is so powerful and so holy that I'm not even worthy to be his servant!"  (Paraphrase.  The real verse is found here.)

The next day, John is doing his thing and as he looks up, he sees Jesus coming down the bank of the river in his direction.  And he says the strangest thing-something that 1,500 years of Jewish tradition has created context for:

"The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, 'Look!  The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!" (John 1:29)

For 15 centuries Jews had been sacrificing lambs to cover their sins and to receive forgiveness.  But everybody knew the blood of an animal could never fully compensate for the sin of a person.  And in this proclamation by John the Baptist, he gives the biggest clue to the true identity and purpose of Jesus.

But nobody understood.

It wasn't until three years later at the Passover meal that Jesus gave the biggest clue of all, and our answer to forgiveness.  He said don't eat this meal- this same meal that our ancestors have celebrated now for 1479 years-as remembrance of a lamb over a door for the deliverance of the Israelites from Egypt.  Instead, he took the classic Passover meal and flipped it on it's head.  Listen to what he said:

"And he took bread, gave thanks and broke it, and gave it to them, saying, 'This is my body given for you; do this in remembrance of me.'  In the same way, after the supper he took the cup, saying, 'This cup is the new covenant in my blood, which is poured out for you."  -Luke 22:19

This was sacrilegious to the Jewish religion!  No wonder he was arrested only hours later.  Beaten.  Lied about.  The very hands that healed the sick and raised the dead were stretched out and nailed to a Roman cross.  And unlike most victims of crucifixion who suffocated under the weight of their bodies, Jesus bled to death...as the Lamb of God who had come to carry away the sin of the world (the hurt that you have done and what's been done to you.)

The pain that they have caused you subsides when you realize Jesus endured it for you and them. The same Jesus who invites you to commune with him at his Father's table has also invited those who have alienated you.  The same Jesus who was turned against by his closest friends has shown that forgiveness is only given to the undeserved.

You will know that forgiveness has begun when you recall those who have hurt you and and feel the power to share a meal with them.

One of the most beautiful things I can think of is communion.  It's the time when we look past the hurt, the stress, our grievances with others, and as a family of God, break bread and share a meal together.   I'll be honest, I'm not ready to invite those who have hurt me into my home and share a meal with them...but I know that's when I'll forgive.

And one day, when I die, I'll be sitting at the table with them by my side, having that meal with Him...together, as the family of God.  It's time to realize that we are already family.  And nothing brings a family closer than a shared meal.

Families hurt.  Families fight.  Families can really screw up.  But families also forgive.  Next time you walk into a church, will you do so remembering that you are surrounded by family?

Be honest.  Be open.

This is the Christian Safe Zone.

Science, Logic, and How the Church Will Survive

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In my last post, I quoted an alarming recent study by Barna that found church attendance among Millennials (22-35 years old) is the lowest in recent history.  59% of Millennials who went to church growing up now no longer attend, and 35% believe the church does more harm than good (you can read the whole post here).

I know many pastors that, when they read this statistic, will inevitably freak out.  They will view this as the beginning of the end of Christianity, and call their parishioners to "seek and save the lost" more fervently than ever before.  They will use the old adage that "Christianity is only one generation away from extinction", and use this stat to back it up.  But, are they right?

Is the percentage of people claiming no religious affiliation (or "nones") greater than ever before?  Are increasing percentages of the population, especially millennials, finding that they have less need for God and faith in their lives?  Is the Christian church as we know it on the brink of collapse?

Ummm....no. And here's why.

Research Doesn't Support It:
Belief in God makes sense to four out of five people in the world, and will continue to do so for the foreseeable future.  And, after a major new study by the Pew Research Center, the Washington Post ran an article titled The World is Expected to Become More Religious-Not Less.  While the study acknowledged that the percentage of "nones" will rise for the time being, religion in the world overall is growing steadily and strongly.  Christians will make up an increasing percentage of the world's population, while the portion that is secular will shrink.

However, it's not all sunshine and roses.  According to the research, the United States will become increasingly non-religious.  The "nones" will continue to grow among Millennials who were nominal in their faith to start (or, who never made their parents faith their own). But, countries like those in sub-Saharan Africa and in the East will see an exponential surge in Christianity.  In fact, China is projected to be the largest Christian nation by the year 2025!

So yes, Christianity will continue to grow., and will do so under the harshest opposition in the modern era (it worked pretty well before...just read Acts).  But what about us over here in the U.S.?  How can we be so sure that the Western Church won't collapse right before our eyes?  Because...

Science Doesn't Have All the Answers:
The Church's primary function is to provide clarity and a foundation for the morality and purpose of human life.  And it does so by professing in a loving God who not only created us, but calls us His children whom He has saved from our own immorality through the sacrifice of His perfect Son, Jesus.

But, what if there is another way to gain clarity and a foundation for human life outside of God?  What if we can find purpose outside of God?  If that's true, then the Church could get run out of business.

In 1926 John T. Scopes was famously tried under Tennessee law for teaching evolution.  However, that book that Scopes used in his class, Civic Biology by George Hunter, taught not only evolution but also argued that science dictated we should sterilize, and even kill, those classes of people who weakened the human gene pool by spreading, "disease, immorality, and crime to all parts of this country (pg.111)."  The link between genetic makeup and various forms of antisocial behavior is not only plausible, it's been widely proven.  And, when understood within the confines of science and reason, this theory sounds completely rational.

However, it was the horrors of the World War II death camps, not science, that discredited this argument for eugenics.  These camps aroused the moral dilemma that eugenics, while scientifically efficient, is evil.  But, if you believe that those actions were evil (which I hope you do), then you must find support for your convictions in some source beyond science and practical reason.

This idea was summarized in a speech that was written but never delivered during the Scopes "monkey trial":

"Science is a magnificent material force, but it is not a teacher of morals.  It can perfect machinery, but it adds no moral restraints to protect society from the misuse of the machine...Science does not [and cannot] teach brotherly love." (The Dark History of Liberal Reform)

Science does tremendous good, but if taken as the sole basis for human life, leaves something missing.  And, in a society that is continually looking for the "truth", we discover that simply basing life upon what can be empirically qualified does not provide sufficient answers.  The answers to the morality and function of life must be determined another way.

Reason Leads to God:
I recently finished a fantastic book called When Breath Becomes Air by Paul Kilanithi.  Paul, a young neurosurgeon, had been an "ironclad atheist" who writes about his journey back toward faith when he was dying of cancer (side note: do not read while holding your own children...you'll cry all over them!)

He writes that if everything has to have a scientific explanation and proof, then this, "is to banish not only God from the world but also love, hate, meaning-....a world that is self-evidently not the world we live in (pg. 169)."

When Paul realized that there was no scientific proof for the reality of love and virtue, things he was sure existed, it made him rethink his whole view of life.  He found it no longer unreasonable to believe in God.  He came to believe not only in God, but also in, "the central values of Christianity- sacrifice, redemption, forgiveness- because I found them so compelling (pg. 168)."  He found that secular reason alone cannot give us the basis for sacrifice, redemption, and forgiveness.  He realized that something had been missing.

More often than not, people who don't claim faith in God do so based upon their own reasoning.  They place their faith in themselves, in what they can adequately understand, rather than in an eternal God outside of time and space.  However, when this line of thinking is taken to the fullest measure, it not only creates reasoning for God, but a desire to understand Him more (See, God does know what He's doing!)

I must end all of this with a warning.  Christians cannot take these reasons as an excuse to let their faith slide.  Yes, the Church is here to stay.  Yes, the Kingdom of God will continue to grow.  But, it's up to you to bring as many people into it as possible.  Your friends, your neighbors, your husbands, your wives, maybe even your own children are walking away from the Church at an alarming rate.

 I believe that a Church who is selfless in it's care for it's community and fearless when embracing the doubts and fears of the "nones" will grow exponentially.  We are seeing it around the world, it's time to see it in our neighborhoods. Change the trend.  Use your life as a statement to the beauty and fullness that is knowing Christ.

Be honest.  Be open.

This is the Christian Safe Zone.