What difference does church make? Can’t you just pray on your own and be a good person? Why bother with getting up early on Sunday morning and putting on uncomfortable clothes to go sit and be lectured at? Good question.
Lillian Daniel, a pastor in the suburbs of Chicago, wrote an article in Christian Century, “You Can’t Make This Up: the limits of self-made religion”
She says how inadequate it is just to see God in sunsets and nature. We need church to have something that isn’t of our own invention, to keep us grounded in our ancient past.
Some people don’t like to come to church because they think Christians are all a bunch of hypocrites claiming to be morally superior while engaging in petty bickering. I’m not going to deny that people in churches argue over carpet colors instead of feeding the hungry. The Church has certainly fallen short.
Daniel argues that’s exactly why we need church.
“But in the church we are stuck with one another, therefore we don't get the space to come up with our own God. Because when you are stuck with one another, the last thing you would do is invent a God based on humanity. In the church, humanity is way too close at hand to look good.”
Church is the place we are reminded that the world does not revolve completely around us. Following God is not just about what feels good to us at the time, whatever whim strikes our fancy. In church we are reminded that despite our imperfections, despite the mess that is community, God chose each one of us to gather together.
We see a messed up, miss-the-mark bunch in church where God sees the Body of Christ, because that is what we are.