|
The word "church" is a translation combining several Greek words and a multitude of images and metaphors. It comes directly from a word meaning "those who belong to God." The New Testament writers used many descriptions to express the meaning of church: slaves of Christ, the people of God, the family of God, the bride of Christ, the body of Christ. In the Book of Acts, the term "brothers" is used thirty times to describe the fellowship we call church. Church is therefore a gathering of individuals who, called together by a stirring in their hearts, seek to awaken to the divine presence. The real building of the church is, in the words of Thomas Merton, "a union of hearts in love, sacrifice, self-transcendence." Merton writes in Life and Holiness that "the strength of this building depends on the extent to which the Holy Spirit gains possession of each person's heart, not on the extent to which our exterior conduct is organized and disciplined by an expedient system." In the Christian tradition, church is simply people who have experienced through the teachings of Christ the truth of Emmanuel — God among us — and attempt to make it the center of their lives and live out its implications. In spite of the chaotic array of religious organizations claiming to be the "real thing," there are only two kinds of churches: the institutional church with its power structure, fundraising, and packaged curriculum; and the holy church, which is manifested in the selfless love of individuals both within and outside the organization who have awakened to the reality of the living God. How could one of the most radical teachings on inner transformation be turned into the dreariness that goes on in most churches on Sunday mornings? The historical reasons began as far back as A.D. 312, when the emperor Constantine won a crucial battle and decided that his victory was due to the fact that he had experimented with putting crosses on his soldiers’ shields. From then on, Christianity became a state religion, as opposed to a secret underground movement that brought certain death to its adherents if they were found out. Now membership could guarantee tax write-offs. Centuries later, the bishop of Rome decided to carve out western Europe for himself and branded it with a legalistic form of religion that has dominated our societies ever since. What was lost in the process was the Eastern form of Christianity coming out of Palestine, Syria, and Egypt. This teaching is truer to the original meaning of the Aramaic expressions spoken by the Christ to Middle Eastern people. It is more focused on the development of the inner life and has been preserved in the traditions of Eastern Orthodoxy. In the Philokalia, a compilation of teachings from the third and fourth centuries, there is a gnosis on the watch of the heart and the uses of attention that is as potent a form of human transformation as can be found anywhere. The mystics of the 14th century, the dawning of the Renaissance, and the upheavals of the Reformation certainly struggled against the more grotesque distortions imposed on the churches, such as the sale of indulgences. But by the time we reach the American frontier of the 19th century, we find a new misinterpretation unexpectedly born out of these attempts at purification. Biblical literalism was made possible because the "baby was thrown out with the bath water." By dropping all the wisdom developed through the centuries, from Clement of Alexandria in the second century to Meister Eckhart in the 15th, the preachers traveling through the new territories began to turn the Scriptures into a one-dimensional caricature, thereby overlooking the clear injunction that "the letter kills, but the spirit gives life." Gone was the allegorical method of Origen and Augustine, gone was the poetic intuitive understanding of a John of the Cross or an Ephrem the Syrian. Suddenly, a new phenomenon was on the religious scene: bibliolatry. The book, stripped of its bottomless spiritual depths informed by Hebrew mysticism and a consciousness of the universal Logos, now defined life and became a weapon of separation rather than a roadmap to unity. This misuse of sacred writings was countered with the "historical critical method," which still reigns in seminaries to this day. Here, the findings of archeology, along with the application of rational and secular forms of literary criticism, are the foundation for the exegesis of Biblical texts. Though identifying the context in which a teaching was given is certainly superior to a dull acceptance of every dot and tittle as the divine expression, we are still left with the same gaping black hole. What is the inner meaning of the teachings that has the power to transform human beings? The inability to answer this question is the source of modern churches' irrelevance to the spiritual journey. One clue that points to the presence of life beneath the rubble of distortion making up the contemporary church is found in the list of rather extraordinary individuals who have understood the nature of this treasure in spite of everything. Consider this roster in our century alone: Albert Schweitzer, Nicolas Berdayer, Evelyn Underhill, Thomas Merton, C. S. Lewis, Mother Teresa, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Malcolm Muggeridge. There are many others, of course, famous and unknown, who have witnessed to the incredible transformation available through the teaching preserved in the church. These are people whose inner lives caught fire and metamorphosed them into radiant children of the divine spirit. Their impact on the world around them is undeniable, and the gnosis glowing within their being is as wondrous as any esoteric mystery. Each of these people discovered that the dogmas so poorly preached from the pulpits are carriers of experiential wisdom. They have developed "ears to hear and eyes to see" in spite of all the obstacles, particularly that of the church itself. Every generation has produced such persons, and they pass on the torch in the dark night of human ignorance. This is why those who seek spiritual awakening cannot entirely disregard the church in spite of itself. It is a vessel that carries a sacred cargo, one that is known to give life to those who find it. And the most astonishing thing of all is that this secret cargo often draws the seeker to itself long before he or she has any idea that it exists. The paradox, then, remains virtually unresolvable: Does the church as we find it in our time foster the inner life? No. Does the church hold the keys to a new consciousness? Yes. In the last few years, signs of hope have appeared concerning the church's role in the future. The influx into ministry of women and of persons who have journeyed through the holistic mindset of the New Age promises to impact the spiritual dimensions of the church's teachings. Also, the recovery of Eastern Christianity in the West is providing us with a theology steeped in insights that are both highly pragmatic and profoundly mystical, although they are not any more generally accessible in mainstream Orthodoxy than they are in Protestant or Catholic churches. Furthermore, those who are on the spiritual journey need to look beyond the cobwebs of old associations that hang over the teachings of Christ. Rejecting the external trappings of a religion that seems like a rotted fruit about to fall from the tree of civilization does not imply rejecting the experience to which it originally called us: the transmutation of human consciousness through the breakthrough of divine light. The great visionary mystics of Christianity, many of whom were persecuted by their "mother" the church, offer powerful testimony to the worthiness of the teaching. Whether or not the vessel that carries this cargo is doomed to crash upon the rocks of its own failures is of little concern. The real issue is: Can a new community of enlightened persons, radiant with the humility and intimacy with the divine that are the true marks of Christians, arise out of the ashes? Theodore J. Nottingham is senior pastor of First Christian Church of Kent. He can be heard every Saturday at 12:45 pm on KLFE 1590 AM and reached at <tednottingham@hotmail.com>. |
