At a recent meeting, one person spoke passionately wanting to know what plans we have for youth so that we can grow again. At another meeting someone else pondered tearfully why certain faithful members drifted away and never returned. At an online meeting discussing the decline of mainline denominations someone insisted the principle cause of our general decline was that Protestant churches no longer stand for anything. These are the comments and questions I encounter on an average week. Could they be related?
After wandering the desert for 40 years, Moses speaks to the Israelites before they cross over the Jordan. Moses of course would not be allowed to go with them. He will die before this second water crossing. Speaking on behalf of God, Moses gives them stark contrasts in the choices they can make: “Life and prosperity versus death and adversity.” “Observe the commandments of God and you shall live and multiply” or “If your hearts turn away and you bow down to other gods, you shall perish.”
Reading the Bible we tend to think of those “other gods” in quaint, distant terms like the golden calf or the wooden and stone idols carved in the Middle East. But we have an abundance of modern day gods mostly having to do with various forms of addiction – work, drugs, alcohol, rage, money, food, etc. These are many of the ways we turn our hearts away from God. Moses exhorts the Israelites to “choose life.” Clearly to turn our hearts to any of these types of addictions is to turn away from God and to choose death.
Fortunately most of us have never had the challenge of overcoming full blown addiction so it is natural to wonder, “Am I as faithful to the one true God as I should be or do I still turn my heart to other gods?” You do not often hear the dramatic testimonies of struggling with one big life threatening addiction in Episcopal churches. But at the same time we don’t spend much time talking about the less dramatic layers of what I call “little addictions” or lesser gods that get in the way between us and the one God.
How many times have you heard “I plan to lose that 40 pounds right after my knee surgery?” Or “I’m not addicted to money but I think about it all the time.” Or one of my favorites is the angry denial that someone might have “anger issues.” Very often we don’t just bow down to one lesser god, we turn our hearts to a virtual pantheon of lesser gods. Do you know any teenagers addicted to Facebook? How about those of us who must have our caffeine fix or Mountain Dew every morning before life begins?
There is one bit of truth in the critics’ charge that Episcopalians and other denominations don’t stand for anything. Officially we can point to the Nicene Creed, the 39 Articles and the Book of Common Prayer but those are hardly going to be attractive to newcomers. The problem is that we DO stand for some things that are very important. We just fail to teach or emphasize them. Here are three:
Prayer – We are formed in prayer both in fixed written texts and spontaneous prayer. We have daily prayer services that trace their origins back to the earliest days of the church. We do not believe in praying for outcomes or manipulating God. We believe that prayer brings us closer to God in all of life’s circumstances. Prayer turns our hearts to God.
Community – Ours is not an individualistic faith. We’re not about “me and Jesus.” We believe that we see the face of Christ in our friends and family here in church as well as with total strangers on the street. When we follow Christ’s example of forgiveness to friends, family and complete strangers we turn our hearts to God.
Discernment – Discernment is the difficult task of getting our personal agenda and desires out of the way and then listening to hear that still small voice of God’s way guiding our life. Learning God’s desire for us demands that we pray, read scripture, attend church, and participate fully in our community because often we find that someone else speaks God’s wisdom to us. When we hear God’s wisdom for us and follow through, we turn our hearts to God.
These three items are what we stand for and they are not easy. We cannot even accomplish them as individuals. I have observed that when whole churches decide to get serious about prayer, community and discernment that surprise; many people find that their personal issues with lesser gods and little addictions all begin to diminish or even disappear. Everyone becomes healthier in every sense of the word.
Our overarching program for the next five years will be to build and strengthen these areas. When we do, people’s lives will change. When we do, people outside our doors will take notice and start coming here. Growth is not about building a gymnasium or hiring a youth minister. It is about the rough and tumble task of individual and community spiritual growth with our current membership.
Moses exhorted his people to turn their hearts to God and choose life. I want to leave you with one simple question, “Who do you want to be tomorrow morning when you get up?”