Empty the Pews

But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

For you lock people out of the kingdom of heaven.

For you do not go in yourselves, and when others are going in, you stop them.

-Jesus of Nazareth, Mt. 23: 13

Strangely enough, I have not heard a lot of sermons based on Matthew 23 or any part thereof.  It is after all a whole chapter where Jesus basically trolls the religious establishment of his day.  It would actually fit pretty well on Twitter, with the hashtag #woe2U. Maybe I should start that and see if it trends... 

See I have Twitter on the brain today, I had my tri-monthly visit with my doctor this morning. My doc is a good guy who takes the time to listen and encourage patients like me who are on the constant campaign of trying to keep blood sugar, blood pressure, cholesterol and weight headed in the right direction.  I call these visits my little pep talks, because even when some number or other is headed the wrong way, Doc tells me all the thing I already know and I generally leave feeling better about whatever challenge I'm going through.  But he takes that sort of time with all his patients, so I spent two hours sitting on a table covered in paper with very bad cell service, so Twitter, because it uses less data than facebook, loads faster and keeps me interested with a constantly changing feed.

One of the hashtags I've been following is #emptythepews where people who are disenchanted and disenfranchised with regard to the church vent their frustrations in 140 characters or less.  As with a lot of Twitter dialogue, it can be pretty vitriolic, it can also be deeply sad and, for me as a representative of said church (even though we don't have pews) a source of grief.

I could say that I'm not one of "those Christians," I could say that those people who are expressing their pain could have maybe tried a different tradition.  You know, maybe if the evangelical or conservative streams of the church hurt you you could come on up to the house in the mainline protestant churches like my Presbyterian Church (USA) where we ain't like them bible thumpin', snake handlin', worshiptainment mega churches.  But that approach contains all sorts of rationalizations and probably makes promises that the reality of the church, any church, isn't going to be able to keep.

See, I have been around this thing called church my whole life, I grew up in it, a pastor's kid no less.  I have served in ordained ministry for almost 15 years, I have worked in larger church groups and cooperated with other sorts of Christians, and I know this, people get hurt here.  Actually pastors get hurt as much if not more than anyone else, and a lot of the time, in the wake of those wounds it's pretty easy to just say, "Screw it," and walk away.  Pastoral tenures are short and the burnout rate is high.  If the person who gets paid to be part of the church can't take it, why in the hell would we expect the people in the pews to hang in there?

Peter asked Jesus, "Lord, if another member of the church sins against me, how often should I forgive? As many as seven times?" (Matthew 18: 21) I'm going to paraphrase Jesus response here because most of you know the seventy times seven thing: "Peter, Peter, Peter, you precious little snowflake, seven times? C'mon man, it's going to have to a heck of a lot more than seven.  This stuff is going to get real, and when it gets real, folk is gonna get nasty.  When they get nasty, you have to forgive, and keep on forgiving, you can't get all triggered and butt-hurt, you just have to forgive."

Don't get me wrong, Jesus was not okay with religious types playing this way, seriously read the whole 23rd chapter of Matthew's Gospel.  There's not a lot that makes Jesus quite as spitting mad as the folks who are supposed to be speaking for God acting like a bunch of trifling power-mongers.  That is where the #emptythepews Twitter phenomenon really hits home, there are only a few that are of the "someone was mean to me" or "the music sucked" variety.  A lot of them, the majority I would say, are of the more Christ-like variety. The variety which criticizes the way that the church has become too much a part of the sinful systems of the world, the way in which some of the biggest voices support the hand of the oppressor and praise a materialist set of ethical principals.  Since I'm in a paraphrasing mood, I have taken the liberty of Twittering up some of Matthew 23:

• Do not do as the @pharisees do, they sit on Moses seat but they do not practice what they teach #woe2U #Jesusgettinriled
• @pharisees @scribes tie up heavy burdens and put them on the shoulders of others, but they don't lift a finger #woe2U
• @pharisees cross the sea to make a single convert and then make them into a bigger hater than they are #woe2U #childofhell
• Blind guides, blind fools, always going after gold and bling for the temple but people are starving in the street #woe2U #Godainthappy
• #whitewashedtombs pretty on the outside full of nasty rotting filth on the inside #woe2U

So you get the idea, all things considered I think #emptythepews is probably nicer.  We who are still willing to call ourselves the church and remain in this difficult communion would do well to listen to the voices that are now calling in the wilderness, do not just write them off or rationalize them away.

We must, if we are to be the church, be willing to forgive and be forgiven, over and over and over again.  It is my hope that all those who #emptythepews will not give up on @JesusofNazareth, because he really is on your side. #godwithus