Friday, 19 July, 2002

The lead piece is from "Amazing Grace by Kathleen Norris. In this book she takes many of the words and images of the faith and attempts to put some reality and life to them.



ORGANIZED RELIGION

I remained a sophomore" for many years, feeling superior to people who still needed religion, especially "organized" religion. But now that I have been a member of an ordinary church congregation for some time, a group that gathers for worship on Sunday morning but is far less "organized" than the average cult, I have begun to wonder what people mean, exactly, when they say they have not use for "organized" religion. They may mean to reject Christianity in an intellectual sense, or to resist what they perceive as the power structures of Christendom. But as it is the ordinary church congregation that most Christians dwell in, and that has defined Christian experience from the beginning, I have come to suspect that when people complain about "organized" religion what they are really saying is that they can't stand other people. At least not enough to trust them to help work our a "personal" spirituality. How can they possibly trust these unknown others, people with whom they may have little in common, to help them along on their religious journey.



I was going to skip this section of Norris' book but then I read through the chapter and found that it went in a very different direction than I assumed it would. I was particularly caught by her comment that the ordinary church congregation is "far less 'organized' than the average cult." A congregation may be a part of a larger expression of a particular denomination or church structure but in many ways, we are quite unorganized and congregations go off on their own way despite the fact that another congregation goes another way. Just recently I have been wearing a t-shirt on which their is a small picture of Martin Luther and the wording simply says, "Old Lutheran" with the date from the sixteenth century. I find it funny. In fact the whole website www.oldlutheran.com is a stitch. "Organized" can have as many faces to it as does, "independent" or "non-denominational." In fact, have you ever gone to a church that claims to not be a part of the "organized" church. I usually find that they are hyper organized and very restrictive of what you can do or can believe.



Connection: A simple question to ask someone who is a member or a church may be to ask them what they like most about being in that group. Our stereotypes might then be changed or dismantled.



Lord of All, by your grace you hold on to all your saints no matter where they are or how they choose to praise you as the Lord God Most High. We give you thanks for the many ways people are grasped by your Holy Spirit in this day. Amen