So, I've started a new book study with the local UCC church. I've pretty much been fighting the call to get involved with the local church for over a year now. I know it's silly to fight it, but I'm serious about wanting to steer clear of those churches who have hijacked my Jesus for their earthly purposes. When I run into friends or folks I used to attend church with, the inevitable question comes up. Where are you going to church now? I'm tired of side-stepping the question, but realize that my brand of Jesus-love is not a tradition or really part of polite discussion. When I go to church I MISS JESUS! I've struggled to put words to the thoughts and feelings I have on this subject. But recently I was invited to a book study and found this poem in the preface of the book to be studied. It melted my heart. I believe this fella captures those thoughts and feelings perfectly. So, thank you John Shelby Spong....I'm going to quote your poem here...
The Lament of a Believer in Exile
Ah Jesus!
Where have you gone?
When did we lose you?
Was it when we became so certain that we possessed you
That we persecuted Jews
Excommunicated doubters,
Burned heretics,
And used violence and war to achieve conversion?
Was it when our first-century images
Collided with expanding knowledge?
Or when biblical scholars informed us that the Bible does
Not really support what we once believed?
Was it when we watched your followers distorting people
With guilt,
Fear,
Bigotry,
Intolerance,
And anger?
Was it when we noticed that many who called you Lord
And read their Bibles regularly
Also practiced slavery,
Defended segregation,
Approved lynching,
Abused children,
Diminished women,
And hated homosexuals?
Was it when we finally realized
That the Jesus who promised abundant life
Could NOT be the source of self-hatred,
Or One who encourages us to grovel
In life-destroying penitence?
Was it when it dawned on us that serving you would require
The surrender of those security-building prejudices.
That masquerade as our sweet sicknesses?
We still yearn for you Jesus, but we no longer know where
To seek your presence.
Do we look for you in those churches that practice certainty?
Or are you hiding in those churches
That so fear controversy that they make "unity" a god,
And stand for so little that they die of boredom?
Can you ever be found in those churches that have
Rejected the powerless and the marginalized,
The lepers and the Samaritans of our day,
Those you called our brothers and sisters?
Or must we now look for you outside ecclesiastical settings,
Where love and kindness expect no reward,
Where questions are viewed as the deepest
Expressions of trust?
Is it even possible, Jesus, that we Christians are the villains
Who killed you?
Smothering you underneath literal Bibles,
Dated creeds
Irrelevant doctrines,
and dying structures?
If these things are the source of your disappearance, Jesus,
Will you then reemerge if these things are removed?
Will that bring resurrection?
Or were you, as some now suggest, never more than an illusion? (I say not!)
By burying and distorting you were we
Simply protecting ourselves
From having to face that realization?
I will seek to possess what I believe you are, Jesus:
Access to and embodiment of
The Source of Life,
The Source of Love,
The Ground of Being,
A doorway into the mystery of holiness.
It is through that doorway that I desire to walk.
Will you meet me there?
Will you challenge me,
Guide me,
Comfort me,
Reveal your truth to me and in me?
Finally, at the end of this journey, Jesus,
Will you embrace me
Inside the ultimate reality
That I call God
In whom I live
And move
And have my being?
