our daughters prophesy: part 2

2/4/09
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

“What I mean, brothers, is that the time is short. From now on those who have wives should live as if they had none; those who mourn, as if they did not; those who are happy, as if they were not; those who buy something, as if it were not theirs to keep; those who use the things of the world, as if not engrossed in them. For this world in its present form is passing away.”
1 Corinthians 7:29-31

A few Sundays ago, author and Christian leader Shane Claiborne came to preach at Duke Chapel. And if you’ve read his book Irresistible Revolution, you might imagine how out of place the dread-locked rebel looked standing before the Durham elite in their Sunday best, a 100-voice shiny-faced choir, and perhaps millions of dollars of centuries-old stained glass. Those who weren’t expecting him had to be asking, “Who is this guy?” And then he started talking.

With no apologies, he read 1 Corinthians 7:29-31 and seemed to look us each in the eye. “What is Paul trying to say? That the things you think are important, that the world makes important, are not important. That secular preoccupations and possessions are weighing us down. That we should live, instead, as if we had no possessions. We are on the brink of something new.”

He went on to show how our human relationships, communities, economies, democracies are needlessly mired in what is old, controversial, or failing, despite the opportunity to do things differently. Though Christianity offers us a way up and out, we are too afraid of falling or too insistent on being “right” to find the passage He has cleared for us. Simplicity is not merely an ideal, but a way to God.

The message that I heard several states away from you, which I desperately want you to hear is this: We as a Church are holding on to far too much. To traditions that have lost their meaning, to those romantically indefinable Glory Days, to internal feuds that rob us of invaluable time, energy, and faith. Friends, our polished and shiny sacred elephants are blinding us from the blessed surprise that is Christ.

So I want us to try something new:

Let’s pretend we have no possessions. We have no church—no members, no building, no pastor, no history. And one Sunday we, local Christians, come together in an empty field and start praying and talking about forming a new community. Who is a part of our community? What are its values and priorities? Where do we meet, and what does that building look and feel like? How do we spend our time when we’re together and when we’re apart? If someone came to visit, how would they know what we really care about?

Churches are living, breathing organisms—as living and breathing as the people who sit in their pews. They are ever changing—collectively growing and shrinking, laughing and crying, fighting and praying, working and resting, reforming and reforming again.

As Shane Claiborne’s small, intentional community in Philadelphia has proven, this means churches can do, can be anything. And, as dread-lock-wearing Shane and, more importantly, as Jesus has shown us, salvation and new life come from unconventional beginnings in unexpected disguises.

The promise of 1 Corinthians 7:29 is that when we let go of all the meaningless “stuff” and go in faithful search of the future, the church we find will be both unexpected and closer to God than it has ever been before. Beloved family at First Presbyterian Church, it is time to stop repairing the brokenness of an old church and time to start building a new one of which God longs for us to be a part. The only way forward is well past familiar landmarks. The only reliable map is faith. The only solid rock is Christ. All other ground is sinking sand.

Peace,
Marie