proud to be Presbyterian... within reason

For most of my life, when asked why I am Presbyterian, I would kinda shrug my shoulders and say something to the effect of: "Oh, I don't know. I guess I was born that way. Always have been." What a crappy answer (and lazy attitude for that matter). But I really didn't know why I was Presbyterian... and not Methodist, or Episcopalian, or DOC, or UCC.

Now I have a better answer (at least less apathetic). Or at least am starting too.

We (the folks of PCUSA) are a living breathing body. We move and change and grow and act--together. The process is communal and the spirit is present. I do not say that often. And... I am shocked to say that I felt the spirit at the last SF Presbytery meeting. But, I did. At a meeting. During a vote where only a handful of people dissented... their voices were heard. This is a discerning community that takes that responsibility very seriously. It is a grassroots community that breathes, wrestles, struggles and cares. It lives.

Don't let anyone tell you that the mainlines are dead. I am hear to tell you that PCUSA is not. (Yes'm, I said that and I will say it again.) PCUSA is alive.

The whole meeting was not peaches and cream, and the danger of appreciating my religious identity more is walking that fine line between serving God and serving the church. Some people think that the two are always the same. I do not.

When we seek to keep our religion (or our denomination or our churches) exclusive and pure.... we worship that religion (or denomination or church) and not God.

Dr. Ayoub, who is a visiting scholar at PSR this semester, calls this the "idolatry of religion" and reminds us that it "obscures the teaching and personality of Christ." Dr. Muzaffar, the Earl Lecturer this year, reminds us that in some ways--"The worship of religion has become more important than the worship of God."

I know that in my seminary experience, when I am SO steeped in the institution of the church, that I need to keep this distinction in mind. The living body of Christ needs to keep this distinction in mind as well. I fear that I will not, that we will not.