Churches Like Big Buts

Churches like big buts…there, I said it. They do. And no, I’m not talking about the kind from Sir Mix-A-Lot’s ‘92 hit, Baby Got Back, I’m talking about the kind that allows for the conditional and temporary view of human dignity and worth.

I hear it all the time in different religious spaces from others:

Well, you know, we love them…but

We are welcoming, but…

Come as you are, but…

Jesus would, but…

(seriously…if Jesus would, could we not just end the statement there?)

The list could go on and on. The radical and inclusive act of the incarnation of the Christ does not lead us to a but, instead it is one of an and. The claim of both human and divine leaves us in an open space away from all the buts we are so quick to use. The radical hospitality and inclusion of the Christ forces the modern Christian to begin to process the very hermeneutic* by which we live in the world. I take the humanity of Jesus of Nazareth really seriously - it is essential to how I view who we are and who God is. And what I affirm from that event is that God does not want to be God without us. All of us. It is so big and inclusive that it is, dare I say, good news! Can you imagine, not a gospel of but and bad news for most, but rather a gospel of and and good news for all - that might just be something that draws people to this story.

The way that you interpret your faith is important; Because, let’s face it, there is no theology, no church, no scripture reading, no prayer, no experience of the divine void of our own personal story. You can not come to a place of faith, a place of interpretation, a place of lived out Christian living without your story playing in the background. There are no blank slates in our churches. There are no fresh starts. This is true of the individual and of the communal. We have individual and communal sins to seek reconciliation and forgiveness from and for. And one of the most glaring is the big BUT. From sermons to policies, withholdings on hirings, even the repeated use of scripture to belittle and bludgeon those different from you - the Church has built its foundation on a big but.

Too many are hurt, too many forced out, too many removed from community all in the name of a but, all in the power of hiding behind a word that continues to keep people we deem as different or other, out.

Church signs are notoriously bad…no, not as bad as Church coffee tends to be, but pretty bad! I once saw a church sign right on the road that said “Come as you are” I thought alright, that’s not bad. But they continued, “Come as you are…you can change inside.” Ah, there it is the proverbial but that keeps neighbor and enemy from wanting to enter into communities of people who are supposed to be listening to the teachings of a radical itinerant rabbi who flipped the script on who God is and who God welcomes in.

There are less butts in seats because there are more buts in our theology. Church should not be a community tasked with an overwhelming list of terms and conditions, check-boxes, and contracts that find ways to keep the ones who won’t conform out. Church should be, needs to be, must be, a space where all of creation is celebrated, welcomed, affirmed, and made to recognize that they too are made new in the work of the Christ in all of creation. So let’s do the good work of removing some buts from our theology and make more space for the butts around our tables.

*Hermeneutic - something concerning an interpretation.