Losing the Way

Someone once compared the church, and all religious organizations, to a NASCAR race. Christian people, Jews, Muslims and other followers of the faith were in the race. Like St. Paul said, they pressed on to win the race, but the Church was to be like the pit crew. The Temple or the Synagogue was to be the place where disciples would go to be supplied with fuel, with adjustments, with new resources to run the race. The parable went on to suggest that the pit crew began to make little adjustments to make life in the pit crew a little easier. They put in a drink and snack machine. Then they wanted to put a roof over the pit area. The crew later wanted to build sides under the roof to cut down on the noise and the wind blowing. Then someone suggested that they just enclose the whole thing and put in air-conditioning. Once the air-conditioning got put in, the crew members were a lot less eager to go outside and work on the cars. They took their time getting up and going out. It was hot out there. They asked for a television so they could watch the race from inside their pit accommodations. Needless to say they very soon seldom had a winning participant in the race.

I actually saw something of this happen in our community. I think they are now trying to get back on track, but there was an agency that began as a soup kitchen. Their purpose was to provide a hot lunch for anybody who came to their place at noon. They were good at this and they had the support of about 60 churches which provided funds for this soup kitchen. The people who came would ask the servers if they could help with rent and food or other emergencies. The leaders began to look into how they might respond and so they opened a food pantry with can goods and put some money in a program of vouchers for rent, and utilities. That went along for awhile and then there were a few requests for shelter on cold winter nights. The Director suggested to the Board that the upstairs be used by him to allow somebody to spend the night. That idea grew into a whole effort to buy the Little Hotel, to convert an old hospital into a shelter. Both of which did not work out. But the idea of shelter continued and the problem of battered women came up and the Board got off in applying for State and Federal grants for domestic violence protection, and the soup kitchen, the food pantry, and the churches just got forgotten in the mix Now the soup kitchen, the pantry and the vouchers are struggling to survive. The Board has had a lot of debt. The first thing got lost in a lot of other good things. The best became a victim of other goods.

It is so easy to let the central idea, the first idea, the original idea, to get lost or corrupted by a lot of later developments. We begin to take for granted the foundation and start to add a lot of things and the whole thing falls down. I think there is a reminder in the Gospels about seeking first the Kingdom, the most important thing, and the rest will be added. In our personal lives we forget what is central and get caught up with all the little things. In business we try to do too much and forget the purpose of our business. I remember talking with a former buyer for a bankrupt company. "We forgot what we were doing and could not decide whether we were a discount store or a high end story and in the end were neither." It has always been a comfort to me that the Presbyterian tradition has the first question, what is the chief purpose of life-- the answer is to glorify God and to enjoy Him forever. That is the first thing. To be grateful to the Creator for life and then to enjoy it and share it.
It is not my job to punish or condemn others. We are to enjoy our living and invite others to enjoy theirs as best they can. Certainly there is a dimension which means that when somebody is doing something that prevents the enjoyment of life for somebody, then society needs to act. But the first thing is to give thanks for life, and to enjoy it as best we can. The rest of it may be air-conditioning pit row.