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Wow, it's been over a month since I posted in here! I actually haven't had a whole lot to say that fits this context lately, so better to say nothing than ramble.....and so the rambling begins.
Those of you who have checked in at The Scriptorium know that I am currently reading The Springs of Contemplation, a Thomas Merton book. I've been sharing quotes there from time to time, and something I read the other night sparked a thought process I thought would be good for here. Here's the quote: "The desert life was a life of non-conformity....The desert people were protesting against the union of Church and empire under Constantine. When the church became a respectable establishment, people started going into the desert....they simply wanted to get out because they thought things weren't authentic anymore....Monks were the great supporters of orthodoxy. What we have to look out for is the fact of living in a trapped society. This society blocks qualitative change while it foments quantitative change."
The thought occurred to me that Merton was saying that the desert fathers were the first protestants, as in "protest-ants". They protested against the Church becoming "respectable" and therefore somehow not authentic. It got taken over by the "establishment" and turned into something that bore little resemblance to its beginnings. In the same manner, we in the "emerging church" are becoming the protestants of Protestantism, if you will. The "protest-ants" are always the ones who are trying to steer the Church (universal) back onto the path set forth in the New Testament. The desert fathers, Martin Luther, Asuza, and now us--we all wanted the same thing--to try and follow the roadmap left for us in best way we know how. I happen to think that the house church "movement" is the way to best accomplish that given the society we have now. We simply must continue to seek God and make sure that we don't fall into the trap of thinking that now we have it all figured out and no more "tweaks" will ever be necessary. God never changes, but people do, so our half of the relationship will always be changing as we hopefully grow ever closer to the beings He created us to be in the first place.
| posted by #Debi | 6:02 PM | |