“To refer to the Church as a building is to call people 2 x 4's.”
― Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical
― Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical
Texts:
"But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's own people, in order that you might proclaim the mighty acts of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."
Why is it so much easier to proclaim the darkness rather than the light? It seems people of faith point to areas in which the darkness seems so obvious, so rampant, in the dwindling participants in communities of faith, who is allowed (or not allowed) in communities of faith (we do well to remind ourselves the people with whom Jesus shared company and broke bread were not necessarily the ones who believed they were holy), and in our lives as a whole. The darkness seems to define us more than the light, our proclamation dimmed by the weight of all we carry into our communities of faith.
Strangely, I think it is our perceived entitlement to the light that causes us to look at the darkness and believe it is assault upon our existence, rather than viewing the light as a gift that scatters the darkness. Rather than proclaiming light, we participate in the darkness, looking to the numbers of people at our church or the size of our endowment as an indication of light rather than looking for the movement of the Holy Spirit, regardless of the community's size.
I read nowhere in scripture that God has called the church to be wealthy, to be big, or to be anything other than a group of people, coming together in worship and prayer, to proclaim that the light has come and that the light will not be overcome. Strangely, we have read, "Wherever 2 or 3 are gathered, there I am among them," and tossed it aside, remarking 2 or 3 cannot keep the lights on in a building.
I am not arguing that churches need not be fiscally reponsible, and I am not saying that large churches are somehow not in line with God's command. On the contrary: I am saying that when that is our sole focus, when keeping the lights on in a church prevents us from seeing that God has lit all of creation, when we forget to see the 2 or 3 faithful gathered as a worshipping community, when we forget that those marginalized and oppressed by society bear the image of God, we miss the point. In the end, I do not think God and God's work in the world are not limited to our understandings of church. All of creation is our sanctuary, and our congregation is made up of all those who hunger for a reality in which the light scatters the darkness and where night gives way to everlasting dawn.
The darkness in the world is obvious enough; preaching it only gives it more power. To preach the light is to hold a candle in the middle of a dark room. To preach the light is to refuse to give hatred and oppression the power it seeks. To preach the light is to stand for and to stand with rather than standing against. To preach light is to stand with the oppressed, with the addicted, with the homeless, with the marginalized, with the bullied, with different gifts of sexualities, genders, and colors of skin, holding up our candles and watching one candle light the next and the next and the next and the next, singing with the birds a simple song of hope, praying with the trees a simple prayer of reconciliation. This is church.
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