On January 11th, 2016, I started a daily practice of writing a joke meditation of the day called Cracked Pot Meditations. I was still recovering from the treatment of cancer, and I was having very challenging cognitive issues, so I chose just to put something simple and easy to write every day. Posting it to the blog allowed me to have some accountability. Some of those meditations were poorly written and unedited. I have gone back and begun editing these and adding an illustration, starting with the April 27th meditation. I hope you enjoy.
Meditation for June 27th
Church
Some religions have churches. These are the temples that people go to pray and worship their Gods. Many churches here in America are Christian, a Jewish cult offshoot from the Middle East region that has morphed into something very different from its humble beginnings. They believe that the earth was created by a single omnipotent celestial named Jehovah, or something similar to that, and that after being disappointed many times with humans, he drowned an earlier population, he got a virgin little girl pregnant with his son who then said some vague things and then got nailed to some wood for being against capitalism, or at least banking, and then a rug salesperson created Church to worship all of that.
Churches have had to adapt to changing times, and as of now (2016), people are starting to leave the Church in droves. Between 2007 and 2014, church attendance declined by 8%, while the number of people not attending services rose 6%.
Why would a modern person go to Church? Why do they still think they can get something out of Sunday worship?
Spiritual Discipline
It is a day of prayer and worship by force. It reminds the worshiper of the principles of Christianity. It is a time to build community with ritual. We can get so lost in the secular mess we live in now; we find the sanctity of the Church to be a welcome relief.
If you go three weeks without a church service, you might find gay people to be almost normal and acceptable. Blacks and white people aren’t disgusting to see dating each other. Slavery will become a questionable practice, even if Jesus himself talked fondly of the institution. A few Sundays of churchless life will prompt a person to switch up the gender roles in household chores at home. Could you imagine a man ironing? A MAN IRONING!?!
Church is Community
A church can gather to help the needy and advocate for social justice and reform. From soup kitchens to international missionary work, the Church is a great place to find a community of fellow worshipers. The Lord can bring together some unlikely people.
Lynching is a community; white supremacist hate crimes can build communities, and picketing gay funerals is a great family outing under the loving gaze of the Lord. The community is coming together and fighting against all of “them”.
Watching football with friends is a community as well, and can be just as violent, homophobic, and racist as Church.
There’s Still So Much Good Left
Coffee – or is that AA?
Change Can Come From Within
Don’t just sit at the coffee shop across the street from the Church bitching about the evils and injustices churches have committed over the last few centuries, but join the Church and try and change it from within. See the pope nowadays (now we have another chill pope)? He is awesome! He quickly erases all the Church’s mistakes by being a chill dude. After a few more notable developments, the pope says, the churches will all be cool, and that will happen from within, not from the outside. The more chill the pope is, the less I think of all the heinous crimes the Church has committed in the Lord’s name, from torturing non-Christians to diddling young boys.
I mean, I know the Church has been around for over 2,000 years, give or take a few years, but you’d think that someone would have tried to change it from within…Oh, yeah, churches were pretty good at torturing or killing those people, but we’re human, so don’t blame God for our transgressions. God only does good things; humans do all the bad stuff. Gays make terrorism and natural disasters happen, and Islam is waaaaaaay different from Christianity, if you don’t read all the books with any comprehension, that is.
We’re All At Fault
The whole point of Christ coming to us and getting his ass killed is to forgive us our sins. We make the world this way. Us. Our sins create havoc and chaos on this blessed earth; so don’t be blaming a stone building or a Holy Ghost for the world being a miserable pile of shit, even if they spend billions of tax free dollars telling society how it should be.
Of course, God could make us not be sinners. He is fucking omnipotent after all. He could change stuff. But he chooses not to. He prefers testing us with not vocally talking to us anymore – except for a few chosen homeless people who hear Him. He likes to test our faith with fake dinosaur bones and infinite space, but he could change everything. So, we can just be clear or not, but he prefers games instead. How can a God be full of love, but also have bouts of jealousy and rage at our hubris? Why is the omnipotent creator of the universe playing games with mortals to test their faith?
God is a mystery, so why question why he does or doesn’t do anything, right? Just have faith that you either will have a rich blessed life – even if you don’t believe in the Lord and sin like a rock star, or you will be a test for others and die of untreated cancer in an alleyway after losing all the jobs, the family and the home, and the death was long, painful and lonely and no matter how much this wretch prayed and went to Church, God did nothing, but who are we to question His choices.
Even the son of God seemed a little wary of having churches erected (heh-heh) in his name.
“Many churches worldwide claim they are ‘the way.” Jesus said in Matthew 24:5, “Many shall come in my name and deceive many.”
And Jesus sounded like he wasn’t giving this gift to just anyone,
“You worship you know not what: we know what we worship: for salvation is of the Jews.” John 4:22
So, the Son of God wasn’t preaching to any Gentiles. He wanted them out of Judaea (now Palestine).
Church doesn’t have to be built out of bedrock or wood, but just wherever you are. Leave the Church to the ones who hate and fear.