I don’t remember many of the chapels from the Christian High School I went to, but I do remember one speaker who said something about Christianity being a faith of action. That if belief was all that mattered, we would all die at our baptisms and go directly to heaven; do not pass go, do not collect 200 Dollars; but we are all still alive after our baptisms (unless we’ve been doing something very wrong), which means we still have things to do.
Thus we are called to an “active” faith, one where we interact with God in everything we do (preach the gospel at all times, if necessary, use words), one with hearts of prayer, service, and love. But what does this “Active faith” look like?.Many more churches are trying to create this through small groups, community out reach, discipleship training, and what not. This is wonderful.
But at the same time I am mildly afraid. This active thing is great, but I am also afraid that it will soon become routine, and people will get bored. At my church there are small groups that are falling apart because they’ve been together for half a decade, and they have become bored. Service groups are likewise having a hard time because after several years, the weekly trip to the Salvation Army is not what it used to be. To keep people happy we need new songs, new classes, new outreach, and new programs. The Church now runs on novelty.
This is one of the complaints that is leveled against the “traditional” churches, that the worship is always the same, which makes it dull and boring. I will admit that sometimes I get sick of Rite II Book of Common Prayer services. The prose is beautiful, but how many times must I hear “Of thy own have you given us o Lord…” Sometimes I wish we could break out the incense and noise makers, and do the Qurbana or liturgy of St. John the Divine.
But at the same time I am glad for the monotony. Once upon a time I tried praying the daily office twice a day, it lasted about a month, I got bored. During that month I was bludgeoned with the prayer of confession. And I started to notice that I started treating people better, because I kept hearing “Forgive me Father for I have sinned, both in what I have done, and what I have left undone”. It was a tad unnerving.
Perhaps this is why we don’t like monotony, we’re afraid it may begin to change us and challenge us (another reason why I stopped the Daily Office). If we live out our active faiths by constantly changing, we’re to busy forming ourselves -and indeed God)-instead of giving Him time to form us.
+Alex Resurgent
Feast of St. Martha
