"I hope that we will have the courage to stop rewarding and confirming people's egos and calling it morality, ministry and Church. I hope that we will have lower expectations of leadership and the institution and therefore less need to rebel against it or unnecessarily depend upon it. After all, as the poet Rilke put it, 'There is no place on earth that isn't looking for you. You must change your life.' The Church cannot make that happen. It can only announce the possibility and offer its Risen Life as leaven and salt. I always wonder why such a glorious power and privilege is not enough. It is more than I ever hoped for or will ever do! Many people are upset with the Church because they expected to much from it."(R. Rohr "Radical Grace" p.185)
One of the few non-family things that has been a constant in my life is church. I can probably count on one hand the number of times I've ever missed a Sunday service. It is now a part of me.
I've never been very good at articulating why. I can only tell you that something feels very off for me when I even think about missing. A lot of it may have to do with the kind of church that I've been a member of. I've had much more room for asking questions. I've never felt that I've been told what to do, but have been given a good frame work within which to work out my own salvation. I've been blessed by good priests, who again didn't do miracles, aren't world famous, but in their own way left a positive impression on me and where good guides.
I'm not really a rebellious type. Some who know me may laugh at that, but its basically true. Perhaps my expectations of church have never been off the charts, and I've never been a part of a church that made promises it couldn't deliver on.
What my experience has been is that each church that I've been a part of at any time in my life was exactly where I needed to be and gave me what I needed for that part of the journey.
Blessings,
Ed
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