Is it Okay to Call Church Boring?

“Therefore, I urge you, brethren, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a holy and living sacrifice, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual act of worship.” –Romans 12:1

I follow Timothy Cardinal Dolan on Facebook.

           

Before you ask, Timothy Cardinal Dolan is the Archbishop of New York. He said the opening prayer at both the Republican and Democratic National Conventions (RNC and DNC) in 2012. His simple yet powerful pleas for God’s mercy and guidance for America was all the convincing this Pentecostal girl needed. I followed him on Facebook almost immediately. Timothy Dolan is an incredible man of faith, and I find his perspective insightful.

           

However, that does not mean I always agree.

           

One of his more recent blog posts, “Boring Mass?” concerns a topic that I’m sure is widespread enough to be at least mildly controversial: Is it okay to call Mass (or church, if you’re Protestant) boring? Well, if the second paragraph where he calls it an “unfortunate and almost sacrilegious statement” is any indication, his answer is an emphatic “No.”

           

I’m not here to argue whether or not it’s okay to call church boring. I can’t think of a single Bible verse to back up my position either way. What I take issue with is what he says toward the middle of the post:

           

“[T]he value of the Mass comes from our simple yet powerful conviction, based on faith, that, for an hour on Sunday, we’re….lifted into the eternal…as we unite with Jesus in the thanks, love, atonement, and sacrifice He eternally offers His Father.”

           

            It’s a good statement. A great one, even. As he says elsewhere, church isn’t about us; it’s about God. It’s about praising God for what he’s done for us, for what he’s brought us through. Yet I would add another bit: It’s about praising God for who he is.

            If you’ve been in the church for any length of time, you may be nodding in agreement. We praise God for being God, not just for what he’s given us—although he has given us quite a bit. But who is God? What is God like?

            These questions may seem elementary, but I believe we need to ask them because we often forget the answers. As Dolan mentions in his blog post, it’s easy to make church about us. It’s easy to get caught up in the music and the stained-glass windows and the pretty flowers on the altar and forget that those things are not why we’re there. To figure out why we are there, I think it would be useful to look at who God is, as evidenced by what he’s done in the past.

            God has….

           

·      Brought everything from pine trees to platypuses into existence with a few words (Genesis 1)

·      Made the sun go backward as a sign at a king’s request (2 Kings 20:8-11)

·      Comforted a suicidal prophet after his biggest victory (1 Kings 19)

And those are just a few examples from the Old Testament. In the New Testament, where God himself walked the earth as a human being, we see even more evidence of God’s nature when he chooses fishermen and tax collectors to be his closest followers. And if John 20:3-4 are any indication, these men had more than a few friendly competitions going:

“So Peter and the other disciple went forth, and they were going to the tomb. The two were running together, and the other disciple ran ahead faster than Peter and came to the tomb first.”

Think about all the friendly arguments Peter and John must have had; how many times they must have sat together after a long day’s work when one of them mentioned the empty tomb. “Yep,” Peter would say, “and I got there first.”

“No way,” John would reply. “I was first!”

“Psh, yeah right. You just keep on thinking that, Johnny Boy.”

“You’re just jealous because I was first.”

Jesus chose them to be his disciples. You might say he chose them in spite of their goofiness, but I like to think it was because of it. I think a God who can create parrots and manatees with a word is fond of jokes.

And that is where I both diverge from Dolan’s opinion and agree with it most. Church should not be boring, because church is about God, and God is not boring. However, we shouldn’t choose one hour per week to be “lifted into the eternal as we unite with Jesus in thanks.” Our relationship with God should be constant. It should be the focus of everything we do, not something we observe on Sunday morning.

And since this is God we’re talking about, there is no reason for it to be boring.

“And do not be conformed to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect.” –Romans 12:2