“It seems to me that the biggest hindrance to mainline churches in Canada is a wishy-washy stance on the resurrection. Without resurrection, there is no hope past the grave. Without resurrection, death is the end.
Is that why so many denominations are holding onto crumbling buildings and keeping on life support congregations that should have long ago died? Without the belief that God can do a new thing, or that the dead can be raised to new life, we’re only left with the sheer force of will required to preserve that which has been until now.”
Andrew Stephens-Rennie posted this brief but provocative thought on Empire Remixed this week, and I wanted to share the idea here. Is he onto something? Are we mainlining Presbys wishy-washy on resurrection? Are our small congregations in large buildings a mark of our reluctant faith in God’s new creation?
I’m a little troubled with the defeatist attitude under pinning this. Let it die so that God can work. With that thought, we aren’t too far from abandoning any field of effort when the going gets tough because God can work things better than you can. Yes, it’s true. God can. But often God works the seemingly impossible through the efforts of the hopeless.
Still I think that Andrew is right to call us all on our apparent fear of death. If churches exhibit fear, where are we going to witness courage? And sometimes, perhaps even often, it can be said that the passions and resources of a particular grouping of people would better serve God if they were linked to those of another community, rather than fighting the good fight alone. But, at the same time, I think that we are not—institutionally—called to run towards death. Even when death seems inevitable. Instead, we are called to live boldly, to listen for God’s calling in our context, and to spend our talents and our gifts wisely. And I think that our churches, in whatever state they may be, are often seen to be gifts and spaces where our talents might be multiplied.
This question of faith and resurrection rings profoundly right now for me. I have recently taken on a new job. I am working at St Columba’s Church of Scotland in London as congregational development worker. Basically, that means I am the lay member of the ministerial team, filling in whatever gaps I can, be they in program or pastoral duties. One of those duties will likely be conducting funerals. Which is something that I haven’t done before. I have lists of appropriate texts and hymns, and I have the wonderful support of the rest of the ministerial team, but I know that when I am called to conduct a funeral for the first time, I am going to be relying on the God-given strength of the surrounding community. Wishy-washy doesn’t cut it, then. Together, we proclaim the resurrection, just as together we live it out. And some of our traditional mainline structures give us the strength to do just that. Jacqui Foxall, associate minister at Knox Church in Oakville, reminded me this week that a funeral is service of celebration of the Resurrection, and a time to give thanks for the life and witness of one particular member of the body of Christ.
Amen to that, and thanks for the teaching.
