I Wonder--March 19

Many aspect of our Christian faith are just the way that they are. The practices of faith resemble what tradition taught us that they were and they are. 

But sometimes, when we linger around Christ, when we watch, and wonder, and study God's word, the Lord might just break through and ask us to look at things from a different perspective that challenges us to grow and widen our faith and gaze.  

As an example, let me tell you a story from this year's confirmation class. 

To set up the story, let me also say that I have used this process three times in confirmation. 

Previously I have handed out the same exercise and asked the students, and their mentors, to consider "The Church." I want them to 'build a church.' They are asked to make certain decisions and choices and then talk about why and how they made those choices. From there we enter into a group discussion about what a church looks like and how 'The Church' is formed and established and sustained. 

The process is straightforward and I have never had any issue with it... until I handed the assignment out this last time and one of the students remembered the passage of scripture that talks about how Jesus lives in our hearts. This student wondered: if Jesus lives in their hearts, and if Jesus walks with them everywhere they go, then does it not stand to reason that the church is not a building, but isn't the church 'me?' Am I not the church, this person reasoned? 

Now while you might roll your eyes at the teenage logic that was presented. The student was correct. 

The church is not a building. Frankly building-centric logic is what got the Pharisees into trouble with Jesus and His message. Since God lives in each of us, and God walks with us each day, wherever we commune with God can be, and should be, an active place of worship where we are molded and shaped by God. 

From a teenage question came a meaningful pause for the group. And the adults who sat among the students felt the pause grow in us as we noticed that God was breaking in.

Some things in our faith are just the way that they are. But there are also places in our faith to draw close to God and wonder if more is possible? I wonder if you can find something today in your faith and in your relationship with God that can be broadened and expanded? What might God be telling and showing you?