June 10, 2008

the household of God

Most church people have experienced a similar story. Little Jimmy, not more than 4 or 5, sees their Sunday school teacher or pastor in the supermarket while with mom or dad on a shopping trip. Confused, Jimmy approaches the church's representative and asks them what they are doing at the Piggly Wiggly, don't they belong at the church?

We had a young boy in the in which church I grew up who didn't realize that any of the rest of us existed anywhere else but inside the church building. These stories popped into my mind as I read the Collect for Sunday which asks God to "Keep, your household the Church in [his] steadfast faith and love..." It seems to me that many of us are still confused like that little boy as to what it means for the Church to be the household of God. It isn't that the building at 506 North Pine Street in Foley is God's mailing address, anymore than God residing at your church. Instead, it is in the Church Universal that God makes his home. While the Holy Spirit might be at work in the souls of all of humanity, it is in the hearts and minds and souls of every Christian that God sets up his residence. It isn't about space or liturgy or doctrine - it is about people who have decided to live, not for themselves, but for the passion and ministry of Jesus Christ.

As we pray the Collect on Sunday I plan to be diligent within my own heart to make sure that there is room enough for God.

1 comment:

Mike Croghan said...

Thanks for this reflection, Steve. We're actually praying the Collect this Sunday at Common Table, and having your thoughts in mind will make it a richer prayer for me. We don't usually use the Collect, though we do typically use some other portions of the liturgy from the TEC BCP. But this week we're doing another in our occasional series on "our faith traditions", in which we explore the riches that our various backgrounds within the Body bring to the Table - and this week we're doing an all-out Anglican Holy Eucharist (mostly).

We have Commoners who are (or have been) Brethren, Lutherans, Methodists, Presbyterians, EFree congregationalists, Catholics, Baptists, nondenom megachurchers, nondenom charismatics, etc. We even have a guy who went to a Quaker college. So it's cool to explore the riches of these traditions - and I'm pretty happy to be doing so with the Anglican roots that I (alone among us Commoners at the moment) share with our little church itself, founded as it was by a former-and-now-again Episcopal priest.

Heck, maybe folks will like some bits we don't usually use and they'll become part of our regular liturgy...like the Collect, or sung Eucharistic prayer. I can dream. :-)