From as long as I can remember I was always enchanted, intrigued, and inspired by the stories of heroes. You have to excuse me, but I know my geek is showing. Yes I was the comic book collector of the neighborhood. I would trade my sports cards for Marvel Super hero cards. I remember being upset that DC Comics began killing off heroes like Superman and Batman’s sidekick, Robin. As a kid I wished that a radioactive spider would crawl into my bedroom and bite me while I was sleeping, or that the local area industrial plants would explode and expose me to gamma rays. When that didn’t happen, I decided that my only other choice was to become a billionaire so that I could spend my fortune developing a flying indestructible iron suit. I wanted to be a super hero, not just for the benefits super powers or because I am addicted to adventure, but because I wanted to save the world. And I thought, just like every other super hero fan, that I was the one to do it. When we were kids we thought we could do it. When did we stop believing that we were heroes? When did we stop believing that we were called to save the world? The place that is supposed to be breeding, training and dispersing more heroes than any other institution in world is the church. Unfortunately this hasn’t been the case in recent history. But the world’s need for heroes has grown more and more in recent history. We may not be indestructible or fly or are freakishly strong, but we still have a world that needs us. We stop wanting to be superheroes because we lose our vision. We lose our since of adventure. We lose the zeal of the calling that we originally had when the call was fresh. As people of God, we simply embrace that it is our turn. It is our turn, because it is a new world, with new people, but it is the same God. We aren’t the first heroes to do this. There is a difference between first and new. We aren’t the first people to go through this, we are just the new heroes that are doing this. We are the latest additions to the heroic storyline. When you choose to enter into this story with God, you are joining a line of heroes who said God, will you please use me to serve your world? Church!
The issue with religion is that religion says, something scared has to take place in order for something to be spiritually “Holy”. But the question is what makes that thing any Holier then the other thing? And the answer is….(wait for it, wait for it) it is not. We miss the power of God if we think that He is limited to ritual. This misunderstanding of ritualistic Holiness ends up harming us and confusing God’s plan, purpose, and presence in His creation. Holiness and Sanctity are everywhere and we are not awake to it. He is everywhere and we are asleep. He is always in the place and we are the ones that just showed up.
Jesus was teaching us to be in tune to what is always happening around us. The idea is that you might live a better life if you understood that He is involved and concerned with every area of your life. Every interaction, every conversation, every place, every person, every mess, every time, every problem, every location. God is always doing something. It’s not a view that He is involved with the things that are “churchy”. He doesn’t get bored with one thing and moves onto another thing and forgets about the first thing. If He is not done with me then He is not done with you. If He can be here then He can be there. He is always working. Life in Christ is about being fully awake to the work of God in all things. (John 5:17)
“The purpose of worship is not to escape from this world, into the other world, but to open oneself to the meaning of Christ in the Common.” Church is not supposed to be a bubble that you run to, to hide from the world. It is a place where you go to learn how to make every place a sanctuary. We are to learn how to be like Christ in unChirst like situations. Worship is to help is realize these depths of our world. If worship doesn’t do this, then it is an empty ritual.” (John Robinson-Honest to God)
CHURCH!
