Stay Away

An Anglican Priest in this diocese recently wrote an editorial for the local parish newspaper.  In it he said that it is a sin to not attend church on Sundays.  Here is his reasoning as I recall it: Christ inaugurated the church during the Last Supper; St. Paul in his letter to the Hebrews said that we must not neglect to gather together in fellowship; Christ is made present in the breaking and blessing of the bread and the wine during the Eucharist; since we are called to be in fellowship together as Christians it is not possible to expect God to be present for you when you are praying alone at home.  Therefore by staying at home on a Sunday you are sinning because you are avoiding Christ.
     Uh-huh.
     What he didn't mention is that also in the Gospels it is recorded that when His disciples tried to forbid a man whom his disciples deemed an outsider from casting out demons in his name Jesus responded that they must leave him alone and respect his work because he who is not against us is with us.
     Hmmm...
     We always put ourselves in an awkward position when we claim to be speaking for God.  Anybody who has ever been sexually abused by a priest or otherwise badly, dishonestly and unfairly treated by a church as I have been and many others have been is going to have legitimate issue with this gentleman's article. There is something blatantly sadistic about expecting someone who has been treated like an outsider by other parishioners and mistreated by clergy to come to the same church on Sunday, hypocritically exchange the peace with people who dislike him, kneel together to receive at the altar, then after the final blessing to expect that the bad treatment is still going to go on as before.  This happens pretty darn often and it has certainly been my experience for which reason I have gone on lengthy vacations from Church.  During these absences God has been very close and comforting to me.
     It is specious to expect that simply by going through the motions during the liturgy of the Eucharist that God is going to make Himself magically present and all our broken hearts are going to be healed and we will find ourselves in loving fellowship together.  A lovely ideal but one that can be only realised under certain conditions, primarily the condition of repentance and unconditional surrender to God's unconditional love with the willingness and preparedness to pass this love from one to another.
     Jesus has many sheep in many pastures.  This is why we have the beauty of denominations, all of them: not just Anglican, not just Lutheran, but Roman Catholic, Baptist, Quaker, Presbyterian, Methodist, United Church, Pentecostal, Orthodox, Coptic and more, besides the many who are his but stay home every Sunday.  God is present everywhere and in everyone and He will not reject anyone for not going to church though whether we attend or not we often reject Him.
     When we place ourselves on the side of the angels we can only too easily ourselves turn into devils.  Remember the Spanish Inquisition, anybody?
     And, full disclosure here: I attend church every Sunday, almost.  Because there is an atmosphere of kindness and friendship I enjoy attending every week and seek to become Christ to others as they are to me.  However I think for now I shall stay away from the church where the author of this article is incumbent and should he ever be guest celebrant where I worship I guess that will be one Sunday when I either stay at home or visit the church where he usually presides.
     In the meantime Reverend Sir, do by all means cast the first stone, but be very careful where you are standing because it just might get thrown back at you.