Why People Come and Go

This won't be the usual "meant to entertain you" post. Was meant to write this for quite a while but was a bit busier than usual.

The reasons behind this post are three:

1. I read Benji's blog post called People Come and Go... And I wanted to reply to that.

2. Went to mass last Sunday which I found very relevant to point number 1 above

3. Saw a comic on Chalkboard Manifesto (see later) that, again, is very relevant to points 1 & 2.

As Ben put it, "This isn't just about y4j but everywhere we Christians go..." Likewise, this is not about community, or any other prayer group. So, really, any possible "controversy" is not intended. But this is something important to bring up...

This is because MANY people have asked me why bother going to church? A lot of people rightly wonder why the hell bother with mass. And I sometimes struggled with the question why bother with community!

Personally, I don't blame people asking those questions, especially when mass is perceived as being something as follows...

This is the misfortune of today! That church is somewhere you go to and not somewhere to belong to. Last Sunday's gospel (Luke 24: 35-48), we were given a glimpse of how the early church was... people talked to each other, shared with each other, broke the bread and ate together. A group of people become a church, a community, when people share. And as Jesus said in Matthew 18: 20, "...where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." In fact, even in the Bible, when Jesus appeared, He usually did so when there were a group of people.

Even in last Sunday's Gospel, more than three people were gathered in Jesus' name. And Jesus appeared to them saying, "Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have." Such people had the fortune of having such a profound and life changing experience of Jesus like never before.

Today, we can't touch Jesus directly. But the Bible says that the church is indeed the body of Christ (Romans 12: 4-5).

"Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others."

For people not to "come and go" they need to be given the opportunity to move away from Christianity as being a simple idea, and more towards Christianity as being a profound and life changing experience. For that to happen, an experience of God's love is necessary... A love which is today manifested in other people... Manifested in the church.

So, if community is so important, why do people miss out?

People nowadays speak about feeling close to God thanks to personal prayer, but still don't go to mass. When I went to 18:30 mass at Naxxar on Sunday (29th of March), this mentality was out rightly condemned when the priest was able to have his 15 minutes say on the pulpit. When I went last Sunday, the priest was a bit more understanding. Nevertheless, the community aspect of our faith is important and church is necessary.

This is a fact that is worth repeating, especially in the light of hearing many community/prayer group members say, "you should come to the meetings for God and God alone". But it's a flawed principle, that is not really Biblical when you think about it. Apart from what has already been stated above, God made it very clear in the very first book of the Bible, the book of Genesis (2: 18)...

"The LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone."

It is not good... i.e. it is wrong... for man to be alone.

What is most striking is that this was said at a time when Adam still had a PERFECT relationship with God, with no hardship, no separation and no sin in between. And yet, God still found it unjust for man to be alone! Let alone now! Sin, with all it's consequences (doubts, fear, worry, sickness) now makes a healthy community experience even more essential to have a healthy relationship with God.

This is why Benji's observation is so important. As very rightly put by Ben...

"Am i really testifying the love of God by including, them talking to them and sharing with them?"

Again, this is not about not having our own group of friends. This is more about breaking our comfort zones to reach out to other people. We keep ourselves busy, immersed in things to do, projects to carry out, outreaches to organise, healing services to do, dances to rehearse, programmes to film, DVDs to make and websites to update. And in all this busyness, we forget the people who come and go. The very people we would have done outreaches for, the people we would have done programmes for, or Lenten talks, or healing services, and youthful worship... All to win souls for God.

And we manage. We lure new people into our meetings to give them a taste of who God is and how much He loves us. But then the worship stops...
The music fades...
The noise ceases...
The talk ends...
And then...

What do we do?