Be the pig.
This past Sunday we were able to wrap up our series on the Apostle’s Creed. It was our chance to take a deep dive into the basics of our faith. The what and how and why of what we believe as the church. These foundational beliefs are there not so that we can identify who is in and who is out, but rather are there so that we can really hold on to what our faith means, especially when things are very hard.
We talked about doubt. Jesus. Creation. It was a great series. The last section we talked about was this:
I believe in the Holy Spirit
the Holy catholic church
the communion of saints
the forgiveness of sins
the resurrection of the body and
the life everlasting
Amen.
The Holy Spirit is one of the more difficult aspects of God for all of us to understand (maybe just me?) and my prayer was that our time together could help us know the nature of God a little bit better. The best way for us to know the Holy Spirit is through the manifest presence of that Spirit, which is the church.
Is that why it is so hard for us to know the Holy Spirit as God?
Let me explain.
When we talk about God the Father, we talk about the order and creation around us. That’s easy to see— we look around, we see rivers, streams, mountains, we feel our bodies work— we can know God in that way.
When we talk about God the Son, we talk about the transcendent love of God in the person of Jesus, and so we sense that God here in our lives. And we talk about Jesus a lot. Our culture, our books, our songs and so we know God through Jesus pretty well.
But when we talk about the Holy Spirit… it is more difficult. Because since we believe the Holy Spirit is that Divine force that animates the people of God, we are that manifest presence of the Holy Spirit here on earth. And that is more difficult to see in a tangible way, because well… we mess up. We are not a perfect example.
And so last Sunday I shared about something rugby coach yelled at me (he was mean):
“When we think of commitment, think of bacon and eggs. The chicken was involved but the pig was committed.”
-my mean coach.
When we eat bacon and eggs, we are eating eggs that cost a chicken very little. They will be able to lay hundreds of eggs in its life. The pig? That is a different story.
I think the world suffers under a plethora of chicken churches. They walk around laying an egg here or there. Clucking about as if they are being the church, when they are really just playing the church. They do worship on Sunday morning, they give money without serving and they are never changed by it.
What the world desperately needs is the resurgence of pig churches. Churches that give all that they have for the world. They worship, but they worship with others in mind. The give to others but they do it sacrificially and with a sort of abandon that seems strange to the world around them. They see everything that the church has as something worth sharing with the whole world.
Shepherd’s Community United Methodist Church will only continue in fruitful ministry for years to come if we decide to be the pig. We must choose to write the story of our church and that story must be of a church that chose to be the pig for our community.
What story will we write? Will it be the tale of a chicken church? No way.
What story will be told of these ten acres? Will this be our coop? Not a chance.
Let’s be the pig.
