“God looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, that did seek God.”
God did not look down from heaven to see if there were any that held a membership card in a Church. Understanding and the fruit of understanding, that is, seeking, was his focus.
The Church has mismanaged its portfolio
God is not dead. Indeed, God is very much alive. However, the conversation about God is dead. Killing the conversation about God is tantamount to killing God. The enemies of the Church know this. The Church does not. The Church has allowed the conversation about God to die.
The Church has mismanaged its portfolio. It is out of balance. The Church has invested too much into the pursuit of God and not enough into the quarry being pursued. The Church has allowed the ratio between the inspiration and the whirl to get out of whack. The ratio is lopsided. The Church needs to rebalance its portfolio. It needs to get the ratio under control.
Why does the ?
What inspires him? Why does a Christian whirl from Mass, to Confession, and to the other holy places that define the escape route of the new exodus from godlessness to paradise? What is a Christian's inspiration?
Answer this question and solve the problem of a declining Church.
The Church has a big problem. The thermometer that gauges the temperature of the body of Christ is the practice of Christianity. By this measure, the patient is moribund - a few breaths away from death. Fewer and fewer Christians are whirling
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Moreover, the whirling of those who whirl has become perfunctory - cursory. They just go through the motions. They whirl, but, they no longer know why they whirl. What was once inspired has become a meaningless, trite routine.
The inspiration that generates the whirl is fading from our understanding. No inspiration; no whirl.
The blame belongs to the Church. The Church has let us down. The Church has allowed the nitty-gritty of Christianity to dilute its pizzazz.
The Church has put the cart before the horse - the whirl before the inspiration. Too much of the Church's energy, effort and resources has been allocated to the whirl and not nearly enough to the inspiration. The ratio between whirl and inspiration is out of whack. Only by refocusing our attention on the inspiration can we reinvigorate the whirl.
What is the pizzazz of Christianity? What is the inspiration that causes us to whirl? The pizzazz and the inspiration are found in the answer to the question, 'Who is God and how do we know it?'. Therefore, please introduce us to your God - not to your Church - not to your byzantine codex of rules, regulations, red tape and rigmarole.
First, introduce us to the God who revealed himself to us on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection - to the God who loves us even though we tortured and killed him. Tell us about him. Give us the details. 'Who are you, God? Identify yourself. Friend or foe? Then, together, we can figure out the best way to pursue him. Inspiration first; whirl second.
Do you have the curiosity of Moses?
Now Moses kept the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian: and he led the flock to the backside of the desert, and came to the mountain of God, even to Horeb. And the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed.
And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt
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Jesus is the burning bush. We baptized him in a wicked baptism of fire on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection in the backside of the desert of godlessness ; but, the flames did not consume him. Why? What preempted his conflagration? Do you have the curiosity of Moses? Will you turn aside to see this great sight?.
Jumpstarting our Curiosity in God
A close encounter with the God who forgave us even though we tortured and killed him makes us curious. When God whom we tortured and killed smites us over the head with the sledgehammer of forgiveness, he jumpstarts our curiosity in God. The blow of forgiveness is CPR for our curiosity in God. It launches us into the next stage: deciding on the best way to pursue him through the Valley of Tears, across the Red Sea of Death and into the promised land, the land flowing with milk and honey.
What is the best way to pursue God?
What is the best way to follow Jesus through the Valley of Tears, across the Red Sea of death and into the promised land? This question is relevant only after we figure out why we should follow him. First the why then the how. To rescue us from our dire predicament in the Valley of Tears, God built an escape route, defined it with holy places, made a map of them, established a Church and entrusted the map to the Church. THE CHURCH HAS THE MAP AND KNOWS THE WAY. However, the Church does not have a monopoly over the trail that Jesus blazed . Jesus open sourced the map of the escape route. He put it into the public domain. He published the map on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection. The map that Jesus published on the road from the Crucifixion to the Resurrection shows us that the only road that takes us to the kingdom of God is paved with love. As he hung from his cross, Jesus clung to his love for us, held tight and refused to let go. Buckets of blood spilled through his bloody wounds but not a drop - not a drop - of his love for us. His most sacred heart stayed filled to the brim with love for us. Clinging to love as Jesus clung is a technology that is platform agnostic. It works whether you are a Roman Catholic, other Christian, Jew, Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, Pagan, Atheist, Saint, Sinner or something else. It is open source technology. It is catholic in the broadest sense of the word. No religion has a monopoly over it.
If the Church becomes an obstacle in the way of our pursuit of God instead of grease for the wheels of our escape, the solution is not to abandon the pursuit of God. The solution is to abandon the Church . Hopefully, the Church doesn't get that bad. Hopefully, the Church does its job. The job of the Church is to facilitate the escape not to frustrate it, not to filter it and not to foul it up. The escape from godlessness to paradise is primary. Nothing else matters. Everything else is secondary. Anything that interferes is suspect
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