The eCrozier

My life shall be a real life, being wholly full of Thee – St. Augustine in Confessions

The world is full of phonies – Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye

Historically in our culture people turned to St Augustine to read about a life well-examined and well-lived. Then, at some point, Holden Caulfield became a more popular source for such meaningful introspection and living. It is an irony of our time that Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, is a real person while Holden Caulfield is the fictional creation of J D Salinger. So it goes, to quote Kurt Vonnegut.

But the irony is deeper than that. For many people today, church is last place they look for truth, beauty, and meaning. There are many reasons for that. My hunch is you and I could debate why it is many people these days have rejected the church as a source of what is really real in life. My further hunch is that we would have substantial data to support our contentions for why this is so and we would both be right for the most part.

However interesting that would be, I don’t believe it would add much more than further bemoaning the loss of the Church’s influence. But what if we instead called people to a real life, as St Augustine wrote? What might people need to experience in church for that to happen? Here are some helpful questions for such a call.

When people enter our churches do they experience hope? Do they sense the possibility of a new and different life? In Biblical language: Do they get a glimpse of the Holy City? Do they get an inkling of what God has intended all along for God’s creation? Do they experience worship of such grace and beauty that they find themselves drawn into the very life of Jesus? Does this worship gladden their hearts? Does it open their eyes to see God’s action in the world? At the exchange of The Peace and at Coffee Hour do they sense among us a real humility, gentleness, and love?

Regardless of size or shape, every church can faithfully address those questions. Our common life on Sundays should be shaped by how we intentionally respond to those questions. When churches do so, a buzz begins among members and visitors alike and that then is organically carried to others because there is something that strongly touches and moves them. This happens spontaneously. It’s grounded in a passion about who we are as a local outpost of the Body of Christ.

Holden Caulfield was right at least in his contention that the world is full of phonies. Well, maybe not full, but full enough that people today take a much more cynical stance to their lives. They are turned away by what they see as the hypocrisy of the Church. And we bear our share in the causality of such a stance.

I believe people are still longing in their lives for truth, beauty, and meaning. Our call is to live real lives wholly full of God. Our common life on Sundays needs to reflect such a real life. That will make all the difference in the world to people we have yet to meet.

+Scott