Monday, December 13, 2010

A Waste of Time

Yesterday, Fr. Peters had a great post on his blog, titled "A Royal Waste of Time."  In it, he rightly identifies the notion held by many that the Church must have some practical purpose in order to be worthwhile for people as false and deceptive.  It is this false and deceptive notion that has led many to turn "Christ into a commodity and the Gospel into a marketing plan."  Those who fall prey to this false and deceptive notion are always busying themselves with finding ways to make the Church more appealing to those who would otherwise have nothing to do with her.  Jesus always loses in this approach.  At best, He becomes nothing more than a mere example to follow; at worst, He becomes completely irrelevant.  Those who go out of their way to create "a Church for people who don't like Church" almost always simultaneously offer "a Jesus for people who don't believe they need Jesus."  So very sad, that. 

2 comments:

David said...

I will have to give credit to those "churches", for those who don't like Church. They sure can fill the colesiums! They are filled with those who come to hear what their itching ears want to hear, not what they NEED to hear. Whenever I tune into one of those "Christian" TV stations to watch Joel Osteen and his ilk, I am always amazed to see how there is hardly an empty seat. The entire "Congregation" is sitting at the edge of their seat, pen and notebook in hand. You can almost see Satan in the front row leading the applause, saying "You go Joel!"
Dave Z.

Rev. Thomas C. Messer, SSP said...

Exactly, David. The formula for packing stadiums full of people is rather simple: Scratch their itching ears by telling them what they want to hear and promise them the possibility of receiving abundant blessings from God if they'll just do __________. It ain't rocket science; it ain't even rock science. :)