I meet people everyday who don't want to go near a church. They tell me they used to go to church. Things happened. Babies came - it was tough getting everyone ready in time. Work happened - had to miss church to pay the bills. Illness sprang up - haven't been able to be regular so we dropped out. Moved to a new town - got out of the routine and haven't been back except for my mom's funeral. Of course, all these people assume that going to church (a brick and mortar building) is what being a Christian is all about.

Now it is true the Bible tells us to 'assemble together' regularly. But it doesn't say how that is supposed to happen. In the First century of Christianity, folks either went to the temple or the synagogue (the early Christians didn't give up their Jewish roots immediately) or they met in their homes. Buildings as we know them didn't really come into existence until the third century when Constantine made Christianity the official religion of the Roman Empire. Buildings are useful and convenient tools for meeting, but they are not mandatory.

Being a Christian means first and most of all having a relationship with the God who revealed himself in Jesus of Nazareth. So being a Christian is not first about attending a meeting in a building. Being a Christian is a matter of the heart. St. Paul said, "Believe in your heart and you will be saved". He didn't say, "Go to Vine and Maple Avenues, attend a one hour boring service, and you will be saved." (Now some people actually go to Vine and Maple and do find God there and actually come to believe.) The point is that even for those who go to a building and find God, quickly discover it is a matter of the heart not attendance at that particular building that makes a person a Christian.

Now, sustaining this relationship with God may or may not mean going to a building. Sustaining a relatinship with God is first about your own personal time with God. It is about reading the Bible, praying, worshipping, listening. Jesus didn't go the temple to pray - he went to a garden (usually) and sometimes to the side of a mountain. Now the Bible does tell us to get together: 'Assemble yourselves together.' But no directions are given about how many or where. The closest idea we get is from Jesus who said, 'Where two or three are gathered, I am among them.' So I gather that you and a friend can be church. You and your husband can be church. You and your child can be church. You and your neighbor can be church. This morning a few neighbors will join June and me at our house and we will 'be' church. Notice, I said 'be' church. You don't 'do' church. You 'are' the church if you are a follower of Jesus.

So if you are alone today, find a friend (even a telephone friend) and be the church. Read Scriptures together, pray together, tell each other stories of faith. You don't need to go to a megachurch to be a Christian.

Can you imagine it? It happened again last evening. Just this time it was in the hospital. June and I went to visit "Bob". (See Blog titled: Living the Unsafe Life) He has been moved to an intensive care unit at a hospital. He is weak, in tremendous pain - yet he smiles when we come beside him. Inwardly I grieve at the sight of his condition. Intervenous drugs and fluids are flowing into his body. We begin repeating the 23rd Psalm. We must have attracted the attention of the nurse. He came to the opening of the room. "You have to wash your hands. You have to put on gloves. You have to gown. We found out he has (an unpronouncable and unspellable diagnosis)." We dutifully wash our hands, there are no gowns - we put on gloves (after finding the right size!). We return to the bedside and pray with 'Bob'. Our hearts are heavy as we leave. We leave in silence. I feel again that we are reaching into the darkess. Except for a community case worker (who is also a courageous radical disciple of the Jesus of Nazareth) we are Bob's only visitors. We are where Jesus would be - walking across the road to the man in the ditch. Are we brave? No. Just trying to be faithful to the call to follow Jesus.

Ron

Well, it happened again last evening. A desperate man came to my office - newly diagnosed with the 'leprosy' of our age. The shock of the recent news is overwhelming, frightening, cognitively disabling. We weep, we laugh (what a beautiful smile he carries - and I tell him so), we struggle. He tells me stories of rejection from a young age due to his disability (unrelated to his current illness). Oh, how lonely he was and is. "I can't talk to my family about this." "I don't have friends." We talk about faith. He is a man of faith. But the community of faith has abandoned him (or so he feels). Remember perception is reality. This is what we are called to if we count ourselves among the followers of Jesus. We are called to embrace men and women like this man. At the end he gets up to leave - he asks for a hug. No question - we hug.

Chuck Colson of Watergate infamy and Prison Fellowship fame posted an article on Christianity Today website on 8.1.06. While this is an interesting article, it is also a demonstration of the lack of an understanding of church history and the predictions of Jesus about how his followers would be treated by the world. If Chuck Colson knew his church history (or if he knows it and would put together the connections) he would recognize that this latest 'distorted public characterization of evangelicals' is a repeat of the 16th Century when Catholics, Lutherans and Calvinists distorted the teaching of the Anabaptists (the precursers of modern day Baptists) in the same manner as Judge Pratt did. Judge Pratt's charge that evangelicals are 'anti-sacramental' and do not support ordination, Eucharist and marriage were the exact same charges leveled at my spiritual ancestors (I am in the Mennonite stream of Anabaptism). I think evangelicals should get used to the idea that they will be misunderstood and mischaracterized. I think that Colson's strong reaction to this mischaracterization illustrates the evangelical dilemma of not wanting to be of the world yet wanting the world to appreciate it, support it, accept it and even legitimize its existence and benefit to society. I don't think that we can have it both ways. To be a follower of Jesus means that we will be misunderstood, hated, legislated and/or ruled against by legislative bodies and judges. According to Jesus, we should get used to it.

Ron

The article is on Christianity Today's website:

Bad Judgment: Ruling imperils faith-based programs around the country.
by Charles Colson with Anne Morse | posted 08/01/2006 09:30 a.m.

Do you think life should be safe? Most people I know live safely. They drive the same route to work everyday. They return home along the same route after work. They eat at the same restaurants every week. When they are on vacation they eat at the same chain restaurants they can eat at down the street from their home.
If you call yourself a follower of Jesus I don't think you were saved to be safe! I think we should live our lives out on the ragged edge.
This weekend June and I tried two new restaurants. Both of them feature menus of fare that we enjoy. At the same time, lettuce wraps are not necessarily lettuce wraps. We really did enjoy those we did have. Of course we had to our comparison conversation. Remember when we had lettuce wraps at ___________, these are a) as good, b) better, c) worse. We agreed on a). At the second restaurant, it was the pizza. This was no ordinary pizza. It was definitely gourmet pizza (any pizza with artichokes and roasted garlic on the veggie pizza has to be gourmet in my book) at a buffet-style restaurant. It was great! We are going back to both places again - it was worth the trip to both. (f you live in the Phoenix, AZ area or visiting soon, I would be glad to share the addresses of both of these fine establishments.)
But there is more to life on the ragged edge than trying new restaurants, following Jesus calls us to hang out there with folks who might test our view of living safely. Yesterday (Saturday) we went to visit "Bob" (for confidentiality reasons I cannot say all of Bob's circumstances). Bob is a recent arrival in our country. English is not his first language although he communicates adequately in it. He resides in a care home setting as he is too ill to be home. He was already given a limited lifespan prediction - but then given grace for more time. He is a dear saint. He loves Jesus. He called some churches, some pastors, some followers of Jesus - they all refused to become actively involved in his life. Like the story of the people Jesus invited to come follow him, they all have excuses. They don't want to risk getting Bob's illness. He isn't of their race (he isn't of mine either). He is poor (so was Jesus). His wife and family don't speak enough English - 'we'll visit with her when she speaks better English'. He smiles even though he is in pain when we come. He repeatedly tells us how much he appreciates what we do for him. He has not talked to his wife for three days (getting around is difficult for her as she has a small child with health issues and must use public transit). June lets him use her cell phone so he can call his wife and talk to her. I go and find staff and commander a phone so now he has a phone. We hold hands and pray together. Could I get Bob's illness and be given a prediction of a shortened lifespan? Possibly. Although I do try to be careful. But then Jesus doesn't call me to be safe, he calls me to follow....radically!

(c)2006 Ronald Friesen