For me this is about moving from these pages that are being read, from the thoughts in our mind, to the reflections of leaders and preachers in sermons to practically doing it. In the houses of parliament, many things happen, including many important things, like legislation being written and issues dealt with. But there is also a great deal of pantomime. If you have ever watched prime ministers questions, or a budget being given by the chancellor, there is a lot of jeering, cheering, laughter, mocking voices, name calling and gesticulating. None of this seems to do anything, and although I am sure many would say it serves a purpose, to large it extents, I believe it is just the drama and humdrum of politics. We need to be careful that the church doesn’t become this.
To many, looking in at the church, all they see is a pantomime. In one conversation I had with a woman a few years ago, we talked about prayer and then church. She stated that prayer was an important, significant discipline, but when it came to church it was tainted ‘by all the politics.’ I often look back on that conversation and regret not disagreeing better, regret not making an impassioned plea about how the church is an amazing living organism that when ‘done’ properly, or expressed fully, brings about a vitality and vibrance of life that can not be rivaled by any thing else, either religious or secular, tangible or intangible, visible or invisible.
The church is the vehicle of God, a vehicle of blessing, that when driven right can become a vehicle of change to people and their communities. In writing vehicle, I have taken myself to a very good metaphor. Any of us who have been a passenger and I defy anyone to deny it, has criticized how the person driving, drives. Whether it is braking too sharply, using the wrong lane on a roundabout, being in the wrong gear, we are all back seat drivers. In the vehicle of the church there is no back seat, we are all in it together taking it forward. But too many of us decide to be on the backbench's, heckling, jeering, laughing, and criticizing without offering healthy alternatives. We give ourselves a sense of pleasure, or justify our inactivity, because the current activity is done in a wrong way.
That is not what Jesus calls us to, and it is certainly not the example that he set for us. Although he came and found the vehicle of God (at this time the Jewish nation) in a place of inactivity, and wrong activity, he didn’t simply criticise, he offered an alternative. Where they had put rules and religion in the way Jesus offered love, healing and restoration (Mark 3:1-6). Notice in this story how Jesus doesn’t criticise, he questions. He challenged why they do what they do, and then offered an alternative, healing the man on the Sabbath. This is what we need to do, not criticise, as criticism often comes with the wrong motive and exaggeration, instead we should challenge, and question, but then also in our own life and action ofter alternatives.
Get on the frontline, get down from the backbench’s, stop being a back seat driver, and recognise that criticizing others action is not justification for your inaction. We are called to love, to make disciples, we are called to action. Christianity is never meant to be a religion of nice theories and good ideas, the church is meant to be a living organism, full of grace, on the front lines of action, feeding the poor, clothing the naked, and setting captives free.
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