Easter

So Easter just came and went. This is the first Easter in my life that I did not go to a church service. I wasn’t one of those people who only went on Christmas and Easter either. I went several times a week for a practice or service or meeting or group or something, until last year when I dropped out. I won’t bore you with the details but basically it boils down to the fact that I don’t see the institutional system called “Church” to be what it was supposed to be. I still love Christ I just hate the religion that stole His name. So I quit. I went to the same church for as long as could remember but the first Easter that came along after I quit I went to a service to my in-laws church. The pastor there eventually left after he started preaching some wacky ideas about not needing the building and how most of this Christianity is traditions and not in the Bible. I knew I liked him. As soon as I heard about some of the stuff he was preaching I knew he was out the door. Religious types can’t stand that kind of talk. Any ways, this Easter I wasn’t going. Ironically enough it’s against my religion. Not the celebrating the risen Lord and Savior part but the hierarchy part and the religious obligations part and the total lack of real relationships in exchange for fake three hour relationships part. To me it is a service. It is a performance. It is an act. It is on par with going to a lecture or concert or drive through religious theme ride. Which is fine I guess but when people call it “church” and it pisses me off. It is not the church the Bible talks about. We’re supposed to meet together anywhere and share things and talk and have a relationship not a stuffy meeting where only a couple people are talking. If I want to go to a concert I’ll go to a concert. If I want to hear a speaker I’ll go to a lecture. If I want to see play I’ll go to a play. It’ll be cheaper. They don’t ask for 10% of my income. Now how do I get off this soap box? Ah here we go…a day or two before Easter my father, who is entrenched in institutional Christianity, asked me if I was going to “church” on Easter. I asked him why I would. Why would I go on the busiest church day of the year to hear a sermon I’ve heard twenty some odd times when I refused to go any other Sunday? If you’re smart you don’t go to Wal-Mart on Saturday afternoon, you go to Wal-Mart on a Tuesday at 12:30 P.M. with your mother in law. There’s more parking and less kids playing in the aisle. Besides that, what are the reasons anyone goes to Easter service? Especially people that don’t believe in Jesus in the first place. I’m not talking about atheists or anything I’m talking about the average Joe who is dragged along with his wife or mom or whatever. They don’t care one way or the other about God and would rather sleep in on Sunday or play their PS3’s . They go because they think they are supposed to. They have an obligation to go. Now the “good church go-ers” that go every Sunday will criticize this type of church go-er. There are jokes about it. They mock them. Like the church go-er is really better off. Now why shouldn’t they go twice a year? Is it because they think, “If I have to go all the time you should have to go all the time.”? Maybe. Or maybe it’s because it isn’t about church. If the average “church go-er” were honest they would say that it isn’t about a religious obligation. It isn’t that you have to do something for God to like you. If you go to “church” and don’t love God then going to “church” doesn’t do you a bit of good. I will give you that some people get something out of services and if you do I’m glad, but I could not do it anymore. Hopefully the people that stay can admit that it was for freedom that Christ died. It is ironic that we say this yet live a life of obligation and slavery to a system or building or preacher. If we are truly free couldn’t we not go to a “church service” if we so desired? Or are we as free as the governing body of the “church” let’s us? That doesn’t sound free to me. This reminds me of an illustration using dogs. There are the dogs you chain up and fence in and they stick around, because they have to. They can’t get out. If the gate is left open or they get off their leash they are gone. They run and they never come back. Then there are the dogs that don’t have a leash and don’t have a fence. They sit on the porch and stay with their master. Even if they leave they come back and you know who the dog belongs to. If the dog that escapes never comes back was it ever yours in the first place? Or was it your slave? Was it your prisoner? The Institutional church often puts up invisible barriers of guilt and manipulation. They make you think that the people that are at every service are more Godly. This might be the case but it has nothing to do with the amount of services you go to. They make you think that if you volunteer more then you are a better Christian, but from someone that’s been there it’s more often true that the people that volunteer more often hate being in service. Best way to get out of sitting through a boring sermon is run the sound or watch some kids or be an usher. They make you think that good little Christians go to church yet they don’t mention that lots of people go to church aren’t Christians and lots of people who don’t go to church are very strong Christians. They will dismiss Christians that don’t go to church as rebellious. Maybe they are considered rebellious because they are the ones in charge. They are the head of the church. But wait… Isn’t Christ supposed to be the head? Like it or not the modern day institutional church is a man made system that evolved from the early church. The early church was organic and relational and real. The modern church has turned into a religious circus. A system. A service. An institution. It is mechanical. Dead. It moves but it is not alive. It functions but does not breathe. It is the difference between a real flower and a silk one. They look similar but are very different. The Church is the people. We’ve turned it into a building. It’s now an event. Not a life. We want everyone to come to Christ so we water things down until they all can be called “Christians”. Then we complain that there are all these people calling themselves Christians yet doesn’t act like it. We created them. These are the ones who come on Easter and Christmas. Then we criticize them... I say “screw it”. “Damned if you do, damned if you don’t”. If I go to “church” every Sunday then I should help more. If I help more then I get burned out and people say you work too hard and should let others do it. Then you realize you have another job in which you don’t get paid and you have no real relationships. When you realize this they criticize you for not working harder at building relationships. Maybe if we didn’t have to do all this work for a service or meeting… If I go on Christmas and Easter then I am definitely not doing enough and I should be ashamed for not fulfilling my obligation of church going. And if I don’t go to any service ever then I am a heathen and don’t have a relationship with God. Whatever you say… At least if I’m a heathen I get to sleep in and play my PS3 if I want to…