I didn't want to watch the new series of Rev which aired last year on BBC1, so when it started I didn't press record. Only after it finished did I see some folk on Facebook raving about it and its theological mastery. So I downloaded it on Demand and watched all six episodes over a couple of days.
For those who have never seen the show, it follows an inner city Vicar in London who has a large church building with a small and dwindling congregation made up of oddballs and misfits. His wife does not really share his faith but supports him, and his board is a homeless man with dodgy morals, a Holier-than-thou middle aged woman who is supportive while he is doing what she wants and a 'stickler for the rules', passive aggressive, deacon who is so far in the closet as a gay man that he has made up a girlfriend who he Photoshops into pictures and whose underwear he hides in his bed. (Do any of these characters sound familiar to you?)
For the best part of episodes three and four I didn't think I could continue to watch, it made me very uncomfortable to watch. Then just as I was about to stop watching, I realised that they were reflecting the Easter story and episode five culminated in Rev Alan carrying a large cross through the streets and up a hillside. But the details are fairly irrelevant, I realised that aside from the Easter aspect, the thing that was making me feel so uncomfortable was how very close to the truth it often was.
How the individual people within the congregation represented groups that are all too often found in our communities of Christians. Most ministers I have met have those very exuberant and outwardly Christian members who are supportive as long as they have their own way within the Church, often holding the leadership to ransom until their demands are met and vocally and publicly withdrawing their support when those needs are not met. Those who know every letter of Church law in your denomination and quote it at every turn, any attempt at variation on this, or a small demonstration of your humanity and inevitable fallibility is usually met with a lecture and a threatened or real complaint made above your head. And the well meaning group who in reality actually make things harder than easier, usually vocal and often saying things that just make you want to put your head in your hands and weep.
But even more than this was the portrayal of a Church that no longer had anything to do with God or the Holy Spirit. So the question is, for your Church (not for you as an individual) if God or the Holy Spirit no longer existed, what would actually change in your Church? Someone asked this very question and his answer was that if this happened, 90% of what went on in our churches would go unchanged. I have to say though, that apart from the motive for us doing things in our Churches there are a lot of things that are fantastic. Our Church does a lot in the local community which is of value regardless of our faith. From the most elderly in the community as well as the youngest find a safe place in our building in a range of opportunities and activities. But in our worship, how much has become routine, set in it's ways? How much of our sitting here and standing there, the words we use each week, the rituals and the way we think? How much would go unchanged if God just quietly slipped away from us?
It would be great if the answer were "All of it!!" but it is highly unlikely, perhaps our individual practices might be affected but maybe little else. This is not meant to be a prescriptive blog post, not meant to tell anyone how to think or feel, what is right or wrong. But hopefully if these questions were asked honestly and openly in our Churches we may be able to see where growth are most badly needed. Because that is what a Church that is fully in engaged with God and the Holy Spirit is like, as with our individual lives of faith. The God relationship challenges us to keep growing and changing, re-envisioning ourselves, constantly questioning and examining ourselves, so that the transformative work of the Sacred can be an everyday part of our lives and community. Maybe then we would notice if God tried to creep quietly out the door.
Stay blessed
