Three Cheers for the Inefficient Church Fourth Sunday of Epiphany January 27, 2013 1 Corinthians 12:12-31

            A billboard along the freeway shows a picture of a hand holding an iPhone above the caption, “Church: Anywhere.” The sponsoring congregation podcasts its services so that worshipers can come to church without the bother of, well, coming to church.

            I get the point. Televised church services have ministered to shut-ins and shift-workers for years. But I question the slogan. I can’t help wondering if “church anywhere” really amounts to church nowhere.

            Philosopher Peter Ludlow might agree with me. Professor Ludlow takes up a different aspect of modern life – online dating services – but comes to similar conclusions. (http://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/13/01/the-many-problems-with-online-datings-radical-efficiency/266796/) “One advantage of inefficient dating,” Ludlow explains,

is that in times of scarcity we sometimes take chances on things we wouldn't otherwise try. In times of plenty, we take the path of least resistance (someone who appears compatible) and we forgo difficult and prima facie implausible pairings. And this is our loss. 1950s romantic comedies turned unlikely pairings into a formula—happenstance throws two unlikely people together and the sparks and romance begin. We all understand this kind of romance—it involves the strange chemistry of putting together two people who are, on the face of it, incompatible.

            Online church works the same way. It creates what Ludlow calls a “frictionless market” where I can dip into the parts of worship I like and not bother with the aspects – and, of course, the people – I dislike. Ala carte community caters rather than crucifying and celebrates the self rather than transforming it.

            Paul seems to favor “Church: Somewhere,” even if that somewhere is the seething cauldron of the Corinthian congregation. He dares to declare that God tosses out our personal profiles and tosses us into a huge stewpot of ethnicities and economies. The Lord seeks the strange chemistry of putting together people who are, on the face of it, incompatible. And when we submit to this romantic comedy called church, a wonderful thing happens: Dexterous fingers find out they need clumsy feet and we learn the reason that eye, ear, nose and throat constitute a single medical specialty. Those who are on the face of it incompatible now combine to show the world the face of Christ.

            C. S. Lewis’ arch-tempter Screwtape knows what he’s about when he suggests sending a soul on a consumer survey of area congregations. It makes him, Screwtape explains, “a critic where the Enemy (i.e., God) wants him to be a pupil.” But the idea of simply walking into the nearest church, “brings people of different classes and psychology together in the kind of unity the Enemy desires.”

            Church anywhere? No, church somewhere. The trick is not to bring church to wherever I happen to be, but to bring me into what the church is: the visible body of Christ.

Online, or In Line?

Doug