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Waiting:7

23 December 2009 2 Comments

Advent is waiting.

Group.

jesus

(because Jesus was white and as a Good Galilean peasant he always washed his whites whiter than white)

I have been doing carol services for fun the last few days/weeks. And it is fun; I love it. Yes, many carols are mawkish (but then I like a rock group who managed to include the line ‘like a mole, digging in a hole, digging up my soul’ in a song and I’m supposed to take that seriously?…) and talk about Christianity in a way I wouldn’t: I don’t believe ‘Christian children all should be, mild obedient good as he’ for example….. but it is the feelings that they evoke. People come together and reach out for a Christian memory or just, well…..something.

People come together: group. I have been struck this year in the Christmas readings how much the idea of ‘group’ , ‘together’ and ‘all’ is there. I have again been struck, even among the most devoted, how much ‘my’ faith has been spoken about; ‘I’ believe this, ‘I’ have lost ‘my’ faith etc etc

And I’m wondering, wondering, wondering, if Western culture over 100s of years has fatally corrupted a communal thing and bastardised it into something purely personal, where you don’t really need anyone else? Heck you don’t need a church ‘cos it is just what you believe..

I wonder if God’s design was to call people into groups where they would lean on each other, be dependent on each other and be with those who no-one else would be……. is this why the Kingdom is spoken of as a party? It is after all pretty hard to have a party as an isolated individual…

Perhaps too deep/intense 2 days before Christmas Day; but I still wonder….

the last of an occasional series through advent…


2 Comments »

  • jim said:

    I have long defined “church” as “God’s obstacle course: survive twenty years and you’re ready for heaven”. If that sounds severe, consider (at least here on this side of the pond) that one can drive through rural Kentucky and easily notice, not just the diferent denominations Christianity has managed to split into, but also, often within a few miles of one another) East Side Baptist & West Side Baptist, First Pentecostal & Second Pentecostal. The names are not always that obvious, but it is usually quite clear that one bunch got into an argument with the other bunch and moved their pews a little farther down the road. Shoot, one has only to attend almost any of the business meetings to realize the Spirit seldom attends one. And yet…fellowship in Him, especially when “Him” shows up and is truly manifested within the service, is a bit like stepping behind the veil in good company. I find “church” indeed within the plan of Christ, but more like that Biblical verse which tells us “iron sharpeneth iron”…..

    - 23 December 2009 at 14:16
  • graham (author) said:

    Doesn’t Paul say somewhere something like ‘…and after all these trials, the church?’…even if he didn’t he should have!

    I’m with you there-like the little girl with the little curl- when the church is good, she is very very good (and beyond good) and when she is bad she is horrid!

    - 24 December 2009 at 19:40

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