So, How Was Church Today?

As they were speaking to the people, the priests and the captain of the temple guard and the Sadducees came up to them, being greatly disturbed because they were teaching the people and proclaiming in Jesus the resurrection from the dead.  And they laid hands on them and put them in jail until the next day, for it was already evening.  But many of those who had heard the message believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand. (Acts 4:1-4 NASB)

In the variety of views of church, most deviate from a focus on the works of God.  Well, actually, most of the views in the United States deviate from a focus on the works of God.  In fact, sadly, even ones that claim to focus on exactly that, often tend to be focused on individuals work on God's behalf.  Yesterday, my pastor told me that people have made church about themselves, and I agree.  To an embarrassingly large extent, American church-goers have made church about themselves.  In fact, it seems the ones that deviate from an individual self-focus view are so unusual they stand out.  That should be embarrassing.

So what would happen if we attended church this Sunday (or better, during the week sometime), and right at the beginning, a man born unable to walk is healed by two strangers at the street corner as he held a cardboard sign begging for money?  You would think that it would be a fantastically positive event, but lets continue into the "worship service". 

And then tons of people gather because it's the only thing going in town right now.  And the two strangers who were involved stand up and point to the power of the name of Jesus, and preach a sermon convicting the people of sins against God and call for repentance in the name of Jesus; the power through which the man was healed.  Now we begin to be confused.  The sermon should be about what happened.  That's what people want to know, who did this, how did they do it, and can/will they do it again, let's see the show.  But the sermon isn't even done yet and the service goes totally off the rails.

Finally, right at the point of appeal to respond to Jesus, the police show up and arrest the ones who participated in the healing (including the guy healed) for public disturbance, because the church leaders - who actually belong there - complained to the police.  The press shows up to report on what happened, who saw what, who did what, when did they do it, where did they do it, yadda yadda yadda.  This is not a splendid end to a worship service.  There was no spectacle, no pizazz, no personality we can focus on to make us feel good about ourselves.  "It didn't really do anything for me."  Some guy was healed, but we're not even sure he was really sick, or really how he was healed, if he was.  Oh wait, he'd been on the same corner for years, and we saw him walking.  That was cool, but who did it again?  Who were the two strangers?

In our society, people would start to focus on the ones involved and see if they would heal again, as if that was the point; the healing.  In Acts 3 and 4, where the event is recorded, it doesn't end after the arrest.  After Peter, John, and the man-formerly-known-as-lame-from-birth are arrested, the numbers of men who follow Jesus swells to five thousand.  This is not the response of Americans. 

Now, don't get me wrong, there were people, lots of people, in that society who were more interested in the healing than in Jesus (see Acts 5:14-16).  It's just that I wonder if our view of church in this country would have the response of two thousand turning to Jesus after the service began with a healing and ended with the speakers and healed person in jail.  I admit that at times I feel free to judge the sermon, the music, the lighting, the other people involved in a service, as if they are to meet some standard of mine.  I realize I do that, and it really bothers me.  I should be focusing on my Master, not His servants!  And before you get too confident in claiming people are "distracting" laying blame on them, stop.  I don't believe any of us are victims of "distracting people", we allow ourselves to loose focus on Jesus, or may not have had it in the first place.

But wait, I believe it gets worse.  If there were a boat-load of people who did respond to Jesus, evidence that the Spirit of God was working in their lives, and clear indication that they were not seeking healing of anything but their souls, I fear that they would be outsiders since they didn't follow our mainstream pathway to Jesus.  They didn't find the path so familiar to us, the one we see provided every Sunday, the one presented by "professionals".  Their origins into a life with Jesus are suspicious, perhaps they are part of a cult.

I have actually heard such talk in a church.  Their conversion wasn't about us, so we begin to tear it apart under the guise of being "careful" with our theology.  I am afraid that the most unorthodox person in our church is the Spirit of God.  It sickens me to think that I and those I worship with have replaced the "orthodoxy of Scripture" with our own version that looks very little like what our Master intended.  It's human to do so, it happened in the early church a lot.  Paul wrote most of his letters to correct this very thing.  And like the church in those days, in our day, there are those to whom this does not apply; blessed souls who may be confused and saddened by what they see in those gathered to worship.

My goal is to jump ship and join those for whom this does not apply.  I want to be one of those for whom worship is a personal practice of expressing the value of the Prince of Life, the One Who made and sustains the Universe.  They understand the futility of fully expressing such a thing, and the joy and peace that comes from the attempt.  I want to defect and join their ranks.  I want to loose focus on myself, my ministers, my fellow worshipers, and instead be consumed in the presence of our Master.