A common occurrence in our world today is the phenomenon known
as church shopping. It has become so common in fact that you can almost say
that it has reached an epidemic proportion. People are desperately searching
for the church that fits them the best. They are always looking for the church
that has the best music, or the best pastor, shortest sermons, or best donuts
and coffee after the service on Sunday. In many ways it resembles dating. When
my needs aren’t met it’s time to end the relationship and take off to find the
next best church.
It seems to always follow the same course. People bounce
around between the different mainstream Christian religions, the Catholics, the
Lutherans, the Methodists, the Presbyterians. Eventually shoppers find their
way to one of the many nondenominational churches or even join one of the mega
churches of our day. If they search long enough many leave altogether. They can
no longer find the relevance of church in their lives.
The motivation for shopping is always the same. The shopper
is looking for something for them self. They are looking for a church that
makes them feel good. They are looking for a church that entertains them. They
are looking for a church that they get something from. Why not? Why attend a
church where you feel bored or where you don’t get fed the spiritual food you
are looking for?
In other words we church shop for purely selfish reasons. It
is all about me and what I can get out of it. But then church isn’t about me is
it? I do not go to church to get. I go to church to give, to give worship,
praise, and thanks to God. God is the reason for church, not me.
Jesus came to earth to start a church. He did not just start
any church or every church. Jesus started only one church, the universal
church, the Catholic Church. Jesus started the Church and then instituted her
leaders – the first twelve apostles. Jesus lived with the twelve and passed on
to them both his knowledge and his authority. He then sent them out to teach, baptize,
and to make disciples of all nations. He didn’t tell them to write a book. He
did not tell them to build a temple. He told them to teach and teach they did.
They were the original magisterium and they passed on to their successors
everything that Jesus had passed on to them.
All other Christian churches were founded by men who
believed they knew better than the Church Christ founded. Martin Luther and
John Calvin, the pioneers of the reformation, didn’t leave the Catholic Church
because of the abuses and corruption. They stated very clearly that any human
institution would suffer such corruption. They left because they thought their
personal theologies were better than that of the Church of Christ. They
mainstreamed church shopping.
When one is baptized they are adopted into the family of
God. Technically speaking there is only one Sacrament of Baptism and that
sacrament brings one into the body of Christ, the Church. There is no such
thing as the Lutheran Sacrament of Baptism or the Methodist Sacrament of
Baptism. There is only the Sacrament of Baptism instituted by Christ to confer
grace. Every person who receives this sacrament is in reality baptized Catholic.
I was born into the Collins family, with the Collins
identity, and the Collins genetics. I am a member of this family whether I want
to be or not. My neighbors are Hispanic. They have much better food than we do
and much livelier music. They laugh and hoot and seem to have much more fun
than my family has. Is it possible for me to cease to be a Collins, cross the
street, and become a Martinez? No, it is not. Even though I am in the Martinez
house, eating the Martinez food, and dancing to the Martinez music I am still a
Collins. Nothing can ever change that.
Likewise, I was baptized into the family of God, into the
body of Christ which is the Church Jesus himself established. This is something
that cannot be undone. It does not matter if I like the sermons in the Lutheran
church or the food at the Methodist church or prefer the entertainment at the
mega-church. I am Catholic and belong in the Catholic Church.
I do not go to church to get anything. I do not go to church
for the music or the sermon. Church is not about me or how I feel. I go to
church to give, to give God worship and praise. I go to church every Sunday and
pledge my oath to Jesus in the flesh that I will live my life for him and die
for him if so asked. I cannot do this in any other place but the Church Jesus created.
My relationship with the Catholic Church is one of covenant
marriage. I am not in a dating relationship that I can end when I no longer am
getting something out of the relationship. Marriages that stay faithful bear
fruit, even through the dry times. Marriages that stay faithful do not go out
in search of self fulfillment. Faithful marriages are never about the self,
they are about the other. They are sacrificial. They are agape.
If you have been courting different fruitless spiritual
relationships maybe it is time to look at the only one Jesus arranged for you.
It is time to stop shopping and to come home.
