Pass the Popcorn, Please

D

on’t you just love having a night out at the movies? Remember all of those hot summer nights going with all of your friends to see the latest flick? Can’t you just smell the popcorn, taste the licorice, and feel the condensation of the extra large soda in your hands as you stuff napkins in your pockets? It’s all part of the entertainment experience: the film and the snacks, the laughter and the tears, the darkness of the theatre hiding the candy on the floor, making your shoes squeak-squeak as you ramble down the isle looking for the perfect seat. Even the funky smell of the old chairs is part of the ambiance of entertainment. Isn’t it strange how all of those senses are brought immediately back to your remembrance, even upon the slightest scent of popcorn permeating the corridor at your place of business?

Lately I’ve sensed a resemblance to the movie experience in the church experience. Excited, we call the local church to find out the service times, get showered and dressed, and pack the family in the car. All buckled up, we drive as fast as we can in an attempt to arrive early enough to find the perfect seat. We do this with the awareness that if we are late, we may have to sit in the front row. We go to our movie and the kids go to theirs—and the whole time we consider where we will eat afterwards, and what the rest of the day has in store for us.

Is this all there is to church? Do we go with the intention of becoming more like Christ, or to satisfy our conscience? Do we want to act on what we have been encouraged to do, or have we even listened to the wonderful words of life? We wear bracelets that say W.W.J.D. for What Would Jesus Do, but do we even consider the question as a reality in our daily lives?

These can be difficult questions to ask of ourselves, a mirror too real to look into. It’s true, that in order to fix our hair, we may gaze at our reflection, but do we really look, search, and inquire into our heart of hearts and our soul? Jeremiah 17 says that the heart is “desperately wicked and deceitful above all things, who can know it?” It’s true that only the Lord can know our hearts, truly; but He can give us that wisdom. He is in the business of changing us into His likeness.

So now that we realize that we need to be like Christ, how does that impact our church experience? It goes back to what Jack Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.” Lately this statement has resonated in my mind. Should I go to church asking what they can do for me, looking into the ministries I can be involved in, searching out programs I fit into, or should I ask the Lord to use me as a vessel to function for His Kingdom?

The church is the people. This reminds me of the childhood game where you clasp your hands together, changing the shape as you recite, “This is the church, this is the steeple, open the doors, and see all the people.” The church isn’t an organization. The church isn’t the pastor. The church isn’t the building. The church is the people, specifically the people called out to meet. The word for church in the Greek is ecclesia “those called out to meet [with God].”

Next Sunday when you drop your kids off at the children’s program, listen to music, and hear a well-prepared speech from the pastor, consider this in your mind. If my church experience is based upon what they are doing for me, and not what I can do, then pass the popcorn and start bringing red vines.

An excerpt from:

Bagel by the Sea: A Collection of Devotional Essays and Poems