scratching

It all started with a cartoon from Dave, the idea that church scratches somewhere other than where we itch. Now it has got a few people talking starting with Phil and then Sarah joining the debate and it’s an issue I am sure most of us can relate to, I wonder partly if those of us within the Anglican tradition feel it more because of the fact that we are a tradition but I suspect that whatever way we worship and wherever we worship at times we all feel like this to some extent. But it’s got me thinking are we losing track, what is church for, do we go for our own benefit or do we go for God, now I’m not suggesting that we are completely wrong in asking these questions or saying that the church has got it right but we need to be careful I have seen too many problems caused within churches because of the ‘well that doesn’t quite suit me’ attitude. We need to be very careful that the question we are asking is what does God want his church to be? Rather than what sort of church do I want to go to? At the end of the day while we spend our time focusing on the latter question (which I think on the whole we spend to much time doing) we are never going to get it right, we need to remember that God is the creator, he created us and this world we live in and it is only he that therefore truly understands the human race, it is only through seeking him that we can find out what we truly need. And yes he did create us as individuals and that might mean that what scratches one persons itch won’t scratch the next persons, but we will also find that what scratches one week won’t the next. I suppose what I am trying to say is that while we keep looking to the church to scratch the itch we are missing the fact that God is the only one who can really reach the parts that all others things we try can’t.