"I Hate the Church"

                “I hate the church.”  As many are becoming aware, there is a Christian sub-culture that fundamentally proclaims this harsh notion. Further, they are choosing to rebel against the church by living out their faith independently. This sub-culture has stirred up a conversation that must not be quickly jettisoned as ignorant speech. Why does this Christian sub-group acknowledge the church with such callous protest? Is the church truly deserving of such brutal criticism?

            As a post-modern, I will be the first to admit that we are a generation of rebels. We see ourselves as revolutionaries in a world that is poisoned by its delusions. Give us something to take a stand for, and we will be there at the vanguard. More often than not, the majority of us have no clue as to how we latched onto these rebellious notions. Nonetheless, this is who we are; we are a generation who find their identity as revolutionaries, or as our parents see it - defiant children. Yes, we are not even taken seriously. However, can we blame you? After all, does not our disposition spit in the face of our elders? It seems that we have all become deaf to one another, while shouting are criticisms back at one another. I’ll be the first to admit – we are fools.

            For those of us that decree, “I hate the church,” we have ignorantly left God out of the equation. After all, it is his church right? Yes, the church is filled with broken people trying to follow a perfect God. Is it not inevitable for there to be something in it to loathe? Perhaps we have become too quick to judge. Do we truly believe that the church is too broken and detestable that God is not at work? If this is the case, our GOD is too small. A God this small is not worth believing in. God is far too great and magnificent for me to place any limitations on him. The living God is continuously at work no matter how pathetic our attempts are to follow him. He knows we are human. He did create us! There will always be a need for grace on this earth we have been given. And we must be willing to accept it. Can we possibly know who God is and how he is working in the world to its entirety? I’d say let’s just shut our mouths, hopefully we have some humility to accept that God’s plans are greater than we could possibly conceive. 

            Now to those that remain satisfied with the church in its current state, will you not listen to your inheritor’s plea? Do not turn your back on us! At the core of this rebellion is a sentiment of genuine concern. At the very least we need to be thankful to have a generation that cares deeply enough to say something. I will choose to believe our God will heal these deaf ears of mine, and I pray the same to you. For, we are in desperate need of one another. We are together “the church,” wherever we are. Choose not to believe in a God that continues to cause disunity. This is our doing, not his.

²⁰ “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹ that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— ²³ I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

²⁴ “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world.

²⁵ “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. ²⁶ I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

John 17:20-26

Let us reflect on our Lord’s prayer upon us. Pray for one another. 

Are We Sucker's for Hope?

If I were to break down the human mind, as I have come to know, I must admit that the desire to hope, in this or that, whether corporeal or ethereal, rests innately at the core of the psyche.  The absence of hope in the human psyche belongs to the distressing clutch of depression.  Or, perhaps, even it is the very hope we once had, in something or someone, that left us abandoned to the devastating hauntings of depression.  Even so, as we would soon discover, found deep at the roots, within the entrapment of depression, still remains an alluring desire to find hope. Nevertheless, hope subsists within the psyche, even when we wish not to know of hope.  Where does this desire to hope come from?  Why does hope play such a pivotal role in the satisfaction of the heart? Most imperatively, is there anything worth placing our hope in that will not leave us in the end deprived?

If we were to examine the nuanced reasoning behind our every motive and course of action, it is my conclusion that we would inevitably find subtle hints of hope embedded in even the simplest of decisions. We hope for success. We hope for acceptance.  We hope for rewards.  We hope for contentment. We hope for victory. We hope to survive.

Now, to what we put our hope in; that is precisely what makes or breaks us.  Again, as I said before, even in the simplest of things, we put our hope.  For instance, I am a fanatic of the MLB team, the Seattle Mariners.  I, unfortunately for my sake, put my hope in the desire for them to win.  Now, if any of my readers know of the Seattle Mariners, they know that it is not often that they win a ball game. I have found that when I watch their games religiously, day to day, I cannot help but feel some form of depression.  You see, I invested my time into knowing the team all too well: the players, their strengths and weaknesses, and the opponents of the day.  Consciously, I knew there was minimal hope for them to win.  However, I invested so much of my time into the team, so I still managed to conjure up a hope for them to succeed in their endeavors.  Pathetic, I know.  Nonetheless, this is the predicament of the human psyche. We are compelled to hope; and whether we like it or not, our hope will soon rest in something or someone.

            More prominently, we are all victim to placing our hope into future goals, achievements and career paths.  At an early age, we are taught to reach for the stars; anything is possible if you put your mind to it!  Without realizing it, we are being subconsciously conditioned by those who have preceded us in their successes and failures.  Those that have failed hope to witness their youth succeed in what they could not. Coincidently, those who have managed “success” hope for their youth to find success in a more satisfying form.  How so?  Because their hope of success has been accomplished, they now know not what to hope for.  Nevertheless, they lose their hope, because they have been led astray by the very thing that intends to satisfy a longing heart. Hope.  Although vestiges of hope will again subsist within the psyche, it will be perpetually left unsatisfied, due to the conditioned hope of things worldly[1]. 

C.S. Lewis once said, “Most people, if they had really learned to look into their own hearts, would know that they do want, and want acutely, something that cannot be had in this world. There are all sorts of things in this world that offer to give it to you, but they never quite keep their promise”.

            Now, to where does this desire for hope originate from?  Well, it seems as though material things leave us dissatisfied with ourselves and life itself, so would it not make since that something eternal is the answer?  Intriguingly, within the very definition of hope lies the concept of things eternal, long lasting.  In answering things eternal, I have found that the Christian hope for reconciliation and redemption provides the satisfaction the heart longs for. Therefore, the desire to hope originates from being created in the image of God.  In creating the world, God knew the course His created order would take in the fall, yet His hope in the knowledge of His plan of redemption and reconciliation brought Him great joy in His creation.

            If this knowledge of truth in the hope of things to come satisfies the creator of the universe, would it not make since that it would satisfy us, being created in His image? 

For it is said, “Blessed be the God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ! According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again, to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.” (1 Peter 1:3)

In referring back to the imagery that Lewis presents, he immediately reminds me of the story of the Women at the Well. In this story Jesus is asking a Samaritan woman for a drink of water from a well, while proceeding to tell her of his life giving truth.

In response to the woman, Jesus says this, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again.  The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life”.

“A Spring of water within me!” “And I will never be thirsty again!” Sounds incredible! I suppose it would be ridiculous of her to not be the slightest bit intrigued by this whimsical proposition. A spring of water flowing within?  To never have to thirst again? I don’t know about you, but I’m sold.  I want to taste of this spring! Where can I find it?

            ^“Therefore, prepare your minds for action, keep sober in spirit, fix your hope completely on thegrace to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.” (1Peter 1:13)

            You see, this is a parable Jesus is extending to the woman.  By drinking water from the well, she experiences spurts of satisfaction and quenched thirst.  However, she is never truly satisfied, because, in time, she has to again make that long trek out to the well for more water that will only again quench her thirst for a short while.  Now, Jesus says, “place your hope in me” and you will never be thirsty again. In other words, you will find joy in His grace. 

            Now, this does not mean that suddenly life becomes “peaches and roses”. No, we are human. Let’s accept this. We are broken. We cannot live out the grace of God in His Kingdom in its completeness, nor find perfection in ourselves.  To expect such a thing would be missing the gospel message. However, the gospel does tell us that there will come a day that everything is restored, redeemed and brought back to life. Now this, this is worth placing your hope in.  For I am convinced that to put your hope His grace and the knowledge of His Kingdom at hand will never leave you thirsty.  I have found joy.

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[1] 1 Corinthians 15:19, Romans 8:24-25