Too many saviors. . .

As the churches decline and face mounting problems, the prospective saviors of the church increase and offer a dizzying amount of solutions. The talking heads across many denominations have done us the great disservice of trying to figure out what is new and different or old and familiar to save the remnant of a once and vibrant church.  It is no different anywhere you go.  Sometimes I might be accused of trying to offer the saving grace to undo the damage.  I hope that has been an inclination acted upon fewer more than many times.  Yet, I will plead guilty of the temptation to armchair God into fixing things according to my blueprint.  Yet it is good to remember at times what ought to be obvious.

Alexander Schmemman is said to have remarked to his students, It is the Church’s job to save you; not your job to save the Church  Wow, you might have thought that the Orthodox Church would not have to deal with the same messy stuff everyone else must manage but there you have it.  We have endless internet talking heads telling us what must be done to save the Church and a limitless supply of armchair quarterbacks telling God what He must do to save the Church.  Of course, some of the things being offered are not solutions but the things the Church should be doing and the things God has expected of His Church for a very long time.  Calling the Church back to her roots and core identity is not necessarily the same thing as those who advocate for changing doctrine or practice to accommodate the peculiarities of the moment.

Perhaps the Church would not need saving if we looked upon the Church as our mother, the mother with the womb of baptism that gave us birth, with discipline of the household in confession and absolution to restore us when we fall before temptation, and with the dinner table set with the body and blood of Jesus hidden in bread and wine.  Perhaps the Church would not need saving if we were attentive to the Word that spoke the Church into being and the Spirit who keeps us holy and blameless in Christ by the means of grace.  But like all rebellious children, we are ready to cast off the constraints of belonging too soon for our own good and too slow to realize the wisdom of the Word and tradition that has passed down to us the testimony of the ages and the witness of the saints.  Like all those raised in a good and solid home by parents who love them and do their best for them, we disdain God's grace as boring and His mercy as not enough of what we desire and too much of what God decides we need.  Like all the fallen who have surrendered to temptation, we are more comfortable sharing the story of our fall than God's redemption and restoration.  Like the smart and self-confident folks we are, we think the better part of wisdom to listen to the voice of our desire instead of paying attention to the voice of the moment that delivers to us everlasting life.

I hope and pray that many will join me in tiring of the many saviors who think they know what God has done and is doing wrong.  I hope and pray that we will surrender our egress to the God who alone knows where we should weather the storm and say on the course that leads to everlasting life.  I hope and pray that we will tire of the constant need to reinvent the Church to save her and will learn the value of the changeless Christ and His changeless Word for an age and generation that sees only change.