Like Birds in a Gilt Cage (gilt means gold covered)

I'm at XChurch today. I walk in, feeling sick at heart that I'm here in this place--in so many ways a monument to American Material Religion... This is us. We are the church. I am one with this people. We are in this together... there is no "us" and "them". We are wrong. We must repent. I don't remove myself from you if i repent... I join the heart of Jesus' love for you...

Here I feel the call of the Father Hen, to his chicks to come home... Word of God is often softened here, deprived of its nutrition. The Body is sick and weak, and many have fallen asleep because of the way the Word is handled here.. Here, if John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, or the Apostle John or Paul, especially jesus, came to preach, the people would be almost completely unaccustomed to their terms... intensity of conviction--the preaching of repentance, renunciation, poverty, suffering without reference to how it "benefits me", is not allowed by this ethos...

Such Grief. Such Love. Such danger...

And as Seth and I walk through the doors, Luke 12: is up on the board... Jesus is talking about fear. Jesus is talking about Hell. Reading the words of Jesus that tell us to fear the One who kills and damns. and i hear the pastor (a better man than I am--i wish we could share a table) backpedaling, the apologizing, the rationalizing has set in... the ethos is in place... and before long I'm out of earshot... I'm at the child care kiosk. I ask the lady behind the desk, "Did you hear the message? What was your takeaway? was he talking about hell, there?.."
he had heard the sermon before, so she answered that he wasn't talking about hell, and that her thoughts were about her own, deeper fears (pet sin), not the fear of God, Himself. This most definitely wasn't about being afraid of Hell...

I get to the coffee guy, W. He is a friendly and open man. He tells me his takeaway isn't about hell, or punishment at all, but that God doesn't operate on fear... Wes and I talked a bit longer and I tried to throw him a bone about Kingdom, Kingship, fealty, and Lordly love for the faithful...

I shared with W about the Wrath of God, from John 3. I talked about how Jesus wept over Jerusalem--how he longed for them to gather as chicks under the wings of a hen... How the wrath of God (Romans, Ephesians) hangs over mankind like a huge stone cave roof--one that is going to fall.

I told him that we're like a people afraid of the sky. Jesus is standing outside, calling us into the light, into truth, into exposure... We fear that, and our fathers died in this cave, so we're not coming out... except for a few who "get it"--who "got it" because it was given to them... I talk about the cost and rewards of discipleship--friendship with the most humble king ever...

Now I sit here, having left Wes. I am drinking my coffee... Their Qoheleth is telling them to "push that off" Pushoff that fear... i just can't believe the sight of 2 thousand people a pop, three services long, with volunteers having heard it last night--all learning to NOT fear the Father...Not to fear That Day... not to tremble at His word (Is. 66)
The teaching is to Fear God inorder to improve your life, to live in freedom. To have a happy, healthy life... To have self-realization. The gospel is couched in self-gratification, not the Glory of God.

Yet there is a humility here, and a hunger. a Hope that Jesus is on the move here... a potential that is punching out in lives... Praise the Father who is faithful to us, though we are unfaithful to him... We are Laodicea of Rev. 3. He loves us, and is calling us to Him, for his glory, at the cost of this world, and our very lives. Let us go then.

This isn't just this church. Jesus loves this people. Jesus died for them and he won't be deprived of them, either--of us... We are America's Church. This is what happens when we get rich.. When we think we're okay, now. When we are unrestrained in our ambitions... when we grow fat and hungry...

I'm working really hard, daily to show love and truth to the Church.

I'm not bitterat least not in a way that Jesus wasn't, that the Father isn't, that any of the Bible Guys were... Before you consign me to the ranks of disgruntled guys that just don't play well with others, soak your head in the Scriptures... Read about Elijah... aaaah, that's my problem? That I actually believe in all that? Mercy!
Read of Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Isaiah--their bitterness, and God's bitterness...

I'm broken. Christ is broken. Hear it!
We are Laodicea!

We need the desperation of penitence! We need the awareness...no, the amazement of Grace! We need it despite preachers who teach out the utter sinfulness of US and the utter holiness of God. don't live in mediocrity and loneliness for Him, and Mature in righteousness, wisdom and service. Let the Fear of God take root, cause mourning and poverty of spirit...