i was busy painting my block for the uThando leNkosi wall painting project as part of our 67 minutes and a bit for Mandela Day yesterday when things got a little interesting.
A lady i had just met, assuming i guess, that we were a bunch of christians helping out with this project, decided to break some ice, by turning to those closest to her and asking, ‘What church do you go to?’
My friend Megan, one of my fellow improvisers, who had jumped at the chance to get involved, proudly exclaimed, “i am an enthusiastic atheist!” or something to that effect.
Not wanting to appear completely thrown by that little speed bump, my fellow painter declared, “Well that sounds like fun.” Again, my day-after-the-effect paraphrase. Painting resumed.
TAKE TWO
A while later Megan had moved on to another part of the wall and my new friend decided to try again and so i started to explain the most recent dynamic of visiting a bunch of churches since returning to Cape Town as opposed to particularly committing to any one. The conversation moved to the fact that she had Catholic roots and what did i feel about the Catholic church? i explained that i believe that the rest of the church has a lot to learn from the Catholic church in terms of holiness and respect and awe for God with the tendency of more modern day churches to adopt more of a Jesus-is-my-buddy approach.
She seemed to resonate with this and said that the one thing she couldn’t stand about a lot of the other churches she had visited was the lack of respect. “I really can’t stand it when people don’t wear shoes for example.”
“I was a pastor for six years in a Vineyard church and i never wore shoes,” i quickly and gently responded.
By way of back-peddling, i guess, she said something about the need for honouring the space and the occasion, like for example, weddings.
“I have conducted three weddings and did each of them barefoot,” i responded.
i went on to explain how i did it intentionally, using the story of Moses and the burning bush and the idea of taking off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. The picture of a marriage being something that God sees as holy ground, despite how the world has typically done what it can to reduce the idea to something more me-focused and consumerist.
i can’t remember what happened next, but i don’t remember continuing that conversation and so she very well might have found another part of the wall that needed urgent attention.
TRUTH OR TRADITION OR BOTH?
For those of us who are part of the church, i believe it is so important to regularly take a step back and look at the things we do [and possibly also the things we like and appreciate about what we do]
Are there things we do which are simply tradition, done because everyone always did them since that time the first person did them, but not necessarily biblical or Godly things? And should we perhaps stop doing some of those?
Are there things we don’t do that might be things that are really good to do according to God and the bible and the history of the church?
Are there some that maybe fall kinda in the middle – fun and good things to do but not particularly called for by God or the Bible and we are free to make a choice as to whether we want to keep doing them or not?
Do we question? Do we critique? Do we regularly test the things we do? What affect might they have on outsiders, on visitors? Do we take time to explain some of the weird stuff and traditions when people are visiting?
Does what happens on a Sunday [if that is when we meet together as church] strengthen, encourage, equip and empower us for the work of being the church for the rest of the week as we work, as we family, as we sport and as we relationship?
If so, let’s keep on with it… happy churching!
I wonder if her reasoning is much the same though? As much as taking off your shoes is a sign of acknowledging that you’re in a sacred space, perhaps wearing smart shoes or tie is the way some people acknowledge the importance of an occasion by doing something they consider to be respectful? Culturally it is the norm, as taking your shoes off to enter a temple used to be the done thing.
It is possible, although i imagine it is more of an everyone-does-it thing than a thought through intentional this-is-what-it-means thing… kind of like when the missionaries brought jackets and ties to ‘The Africa’ and made the locals wear those to preach or attend church [even though it made little sense from a temperature sanity point of view] because they did back home rather than it being a spiritual necessity or even a practical one… alhough the point of this particular musing was more to draw attention to her quite strong [in emphasis] judgement of something i do all the time quite intentionally and naturally as opposed to suggesting that her standard needs to be judged at all… the deeper question of ‘why do we do what we do?’ being the operative question here, but, having said all that i do see where you are coming from culturally norm-wise…