Never Found God In Church?

“Tell the truth, have you ever found God in Church? I never did. I just found a bunch of folks hoping for [God] to show. Any God I ever felt in Church I brought in with me. And I think all the other folks did too. They came to Church to share God, not find God.” - Alice Walker, author of The Colour Purple

St. Augustine wrote something to the effect that our hearts are restless until they find their rest in God. Augustine might have affirmed Alice Walker's sentiments in the previous quotation.

King David of old was the first to be pointedly told that God does not need man- kind to build a house for God to live in. God does not reside in buildings; God lives in the hearts of people – kind, generous, compassionate, loving, living, caring people. If God ever is in church it is because the worshippers present have brought in the Holy Presence which dwells in their compassionate lives.

Could it be that if we took more seriously the fact that God does not reside in any of our buildings that it might be more readily possible for us to let our buildings go when we need to do so? I think the change that God is endeavouring to accomplish in the church is being held up by our attachments not just to the physical buildings but to the mistaken belief that somehow or other the building is the church because it is “God's home.” NOT!!

Another very unfortunate corollary of this way of thinking is that we do not readily recognize God in one another. It is easy to do so for those who think and act like us but others who may have different ways of thinking, new ideas to promote are not as warmly regarded. This is not the way of Christ! This is not the way it is supposed to be in God's family!

In churches I served fellow Christians argued – really argued – over carpet colour, whether or not to get new choir gowns, burning a Christ candle, getting the new hymnbook, passing the peace, who should organize a community potluck supper. And I mean they argued, they stopped talking to one another, in some situations people left. How could anyone think that God might reside in a building that housed these people? How could anyone even be persuaded that God – that is, God's Spirit – could even reside in those individuals who were party to such disagreements? Somewhere in the first letter of John (in the Christian scriptures) we find something that goes like this: “God is love. If you do not love your brother or sister you cannot love God.” Don't just think about this; do it!