Church is Messy!

When I was a child I loved to get my hands in the soil of the earth. I was always digging for worms, making mud-pies, and trying to dig all the way to China. The older I get it seems I’m less likely to get my hands dirty. This past week we were weeding a parishioner’s yard and before I could eat lunch I had to wash my hands. It actually required a couple of times with the soap and water before most of the dirt was removed and it was finally acceptable to eat. When I was a child I would not have thought twice about picking up a sandwich with the newly mud-pied hands. I might have even tried to eat the mud-pie.

I fear that age teaches us the reality that life is out of our control and so we counteract by controlling the few things we can. In the midst of this we lose our playfulness. We try to clean things up. I believe that this phenomenon seeps into the church. Who has the best youth program? Who has the best attendance at worship? Who has the most money? Who has the best choir? Who has the most contemporary worship? We want things to be so controlled and perfect that we lose the passion behind what it means to gather in the name of our Creator. God knows life is messy. God sent his only Son into this messy world so we would know the power of God’s love. Maybe the question we ought to ask is, “Is the church getting messy?” “Is the church playing in the gift of creation?”

This playfulness is where God’s passion seeps into our lives. It is what draws people into the faith. Maybe as people of faith we need to stop washing our hands to be a perfect church and start digging for those considered the worms of the community. Start digging for those who need to know of God’s love. Start digging for those who are trying to get above ground. After all, God rose from the grave to dig us out of sin so we are free to play in love and grace.