A challenge to the church to change – ‘When the church, afraid of changing’
Hymn writers sometimes ask questions of the church and then flesh out the consequences of the actions they have described. Fred Pratt Green’s - ‘When the Church of Jesus shuts its outer door’ is one such hymn (perhaps too challenging, or near to the bone, to be in Hymns & Psalms or Singing the Faith?) As we live out the time through lectionary readings from resurrection to Pentecost we have a chance to reflect on what the church is, and what it might be expected to be. Remember that Jesus death was partly a consequence of his challenging people to change their perspectives of faith.
When the church, afraid of changing, clings to glories of the past, holding fast to long lost memories, sure that it will always last, lost in time, devoid of spirit, know this truth, its fate is cast.
When the church no longer welcomes people other than it's own, when it thinks its understanding stands complete, is fully grown, love is rarely seen in action, grace is only, thinly, sown.
Jesus challenged expectation, turning tables upside down, those who once were thought as holy he confronted with a frown. When, then, will we learn the lesson, own that cross, that thorny crown?
1 No royal robes, but donkey riding, the Christ, our King, had come to town, Jerusalem came out to meet him. Would gold or thorns compose a crown?
2 The people spread their palms before him, they wondered what this day would bring: as Jesus, humble, riding quietly brought contrast to the praise they'd sing.
3 The ones who'd shared these years had answers, but even they could get it wrong. So many tensions, tangled, threaded brought notes of discord to their song.
4 But soon the world would be confounded, the tables turned, the structures torn, till only those fired by God's spirit could meet this crisis, be reborn.
5 And if within imagination we walked within that crowd today, would we withstand the world's derision, to stay with Christ, or turn away?
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