Wake Up, Dead Man

A lot of people in the emergent, "see God in the arts" crowd talked a lot about the celebration scene in the second Matrix movie. They saw it as a parallel to how gatherings of believers should be (at least in a figurative sense... even though some perhaps desire it to be in a very literal sense).

Now, I'm not NECESSARILY one of those people. I was raised to be pretty reserved with my emotions during "church" time. People who let it all hang out were "charismatic"... which, in our lexicon, translated as "overly-emotional weirdos". I certainly don't think it is a good thing that I'm like this. I would like to be open to more displays of excitement, mourning, anticipation, joy, etc. during "church" time.

And today, I got a small glimpse of that. People sang to God, and allowed what they were singing to be expressed in their faces and bodies. People were honestly excited. Scripture was read in a way that was meant to inspire a longing for Christ and his coming. The musicians followed the lead of those who got up to read scripture. It was very cool, and in a small way, it reminded me of that celebration in Zion in the Matrix movie.

Contrast that to the lifeless, sterile... let's just say it, death that is found in most "church" services. How many of us walked away from our candle light services on Christmas eve inspired, or even invigorated?

Every year when I was growing up, my home "church" would do the exact same flippin' service. Same songs. Same routine. The only thing that ever made it worth sitting through was one woman who, incidently, sang the same song every year, but we didn't care, because she sang it so well. Everything else was a race so we could get out the door and meet other families at a restaurant. Now I wonder why we didn't just cut the crap and get to the food. There was more Christ in those conversations than there was in the "Service of the Same Old Same Old."

Where did we get so addicted to routines? Where'd we get so somber? When did we become content to sit our cheeks down in a pew and get numb for an hour? Why do we engage in such torture? When the children of God get together, it should be an exciting event! If for any other reason that that God has, through is grace, given us the opportunity to be together again!

One time a friend of mine asked why he couldn't feel as "worshipful" in a church service as he felt at the U2 concert he went to. Of course, he was quickly set straight. "Church services aren't meant to be like concerts." And I agree (mainly because, if they were, people would quit buying tickets to the concerts). At the same time, am I the only one who sees and incredible lack of authentic emotion at a gathering of people who are supposed to be in service to the one person who is King over even the kings of the earth? Doesn't that give us SOME clue that something might be wrong? We call ourselves "the body" but are lacking life!

Andy Kaufman used to do whatever he could on stage to evoke any type of emotion he could get his hands on... if anger happened to be that emotion, then he settled for anger. Why was it so important? Because, folks, it's emotion that separates us from computers. Without it, you're a robot.

I'm fed up with being a robot. I want my "church" time to be like life, not this clean little sanitized corner of my life. That's deception. If that's all people know of me, then they don't know me, and there is no community. Until we are willing to allow volatile, colorful, unpredictable, living, breathing, moving emotions back into our "church" time, we will continue living these lies right in front of each other.

Happy New Year.
posted by Stephen at 11:44 PM | |