"My prayer for this Easter season is that we do not, in returning to our gathering places, seek to lock God, or So the practice of our faith, back out of our homes. Can we continue to join, as lay people and clergy, to pray together daily from the comfort of our living rooms?"
When Bishop David writes this towards the end of his message, I find myself wondering why it is that we Christians today do seem to have locked God out of our homes. Are we really more comfortable living without him with us than with him discernibly present like the latest Wifi - in every room of the house?
My answer to this is 'yes', in a country like ours. Because we have come to enjoy the treasures we lay up for ourselves on earth, and have lost sight of the treasures in heaven. It does not matter that such treasures as we have are enervating, fragile and only momentarily satisfying. Family and friendship relationships are all too often soured by lack of consideration for others. The forces of the context in which we are living out our lives - western capitalism, - are such as to suck us into its vortex of spiritual confusion. We have neither the heart nor stomach for the intense struggle against its entropy we must engage in if we are to avoid being dragged into a black hole of despair.
There are two things I would like to share with you and the world at this time. One is, that the Church of England, like the other institutionalised churches, has shot itself in the foot over and over again ever since it came up in the with the idea of territorial boundaries for its ministerial and pastoral provisions. These, with all the regulatory provisions that have piled up to service them, have led to us today's completely unworkable system. It needs to scrapped, if there is to be any chance of groups of Christians getting together in future for worship in their local areas without the insane burden of maintaining expensive and fundamentally unnecessary buildings. A burden which the centralised church has saddled itself with like a virus that is always going to have to be faced up to like a pandemic. One that is likely to be financially ruinous.
Has the hierarchy any Christian motivation to do this? I see that there are many good, though short term, financial reasons for keeping on with the tinkering that is happening. Systematic financially motivated tweaks are one of the major weapons in the armoury of those who have inherited the purse strings and wish to continue to hold them. But what is needed is a resurrection of Christian faith and commitment. This will not happen until a death and burial have taken place. And what the resurrection world will look like has to remain to be seen. No attempt on our part to plan it will succeed. God alone will do the new thing that needs to be done. Meanwhile, there is one thing I think we can do to tweak the system to its great financial benefit.
The second thing is this. hierarchy should encourage us all to let our kitchens and living rooms become the shrines where two or three gather together in the name of Jesus. One of us can lead the rest in thanksgiving for his death and resurrection of Jesus while taking bread and wine we can all then share. Holy Communion DIY. Why not?
I reckon that will liven things up enormously, and motivate ordinary people to do extraordinary things as the Holy Spirit goes about the business of renewing the face of the earth and turning human society the right side up.
