Why Do You Go To Church?

By: David Wickert

Every Tuesday, all of our staff gather for a meeting that begins with prayers and then a devotion. Recently, a staff member decided to write his own devotion that we would love to share with you all.

Renowned science fiction author Philip K. Dick once described reality as “that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” Perhaps then, it could be more simply stated that reality or truth is what remains while delusions or lies are what pass away.

An early version of myself once thought the man, the face, of Quaker Oats was Benjamin Franklin. This of course was false. In fact, looking back, it was quite ridiculous to think a group of humble Quakers would choose a notorious womanizer and face of the hundred dollar bill to be the face of their company.

The man you see here is actually William Penn, Quaker and founder of the Pennsylvania colony. While I fully admit this example is absurd, to me, it highlights the fallibility of the human mind in its ability to perceive truth. Don’t believe me? Here are some things you might believe that are actually false:

“Jiffy” peanut butter doesn’t exist, it’s “Jif.”

The Monopoly man (Pennybags) doesn’t have a monocle.

“Life was like (not is like) a box of chocolates” is the actual quote from Forrest Gump.

Fruit in Froot Loops is spelled with two “o’s.”

Curious George doesn’t have a tail.

Mickey Mouse doesn’t wear suspenders.

Maybe you knew all of these already, but I’m sure at some point you’ve believed something that turned out to be wrong. The mind is an imperfect vessel at perceiving truth.

If you’ve ever been to a wedding, you’ve probably heard a reading from 1 Corinthians 13. Paul begins by telling us about abilities of prophecy, speaking in tongues, and knowledge and how they are nothing without love. He then proceeds to tell all the things love is, blah, blah, blah boring. BUT he then mentions how love endures all things. Then comes my favorite part, verses 8-12:

^“Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known.”

This juxtaposition, between that which endures (faith, hope, and LOVE) and that which does not (prophecies, tongues, and knowledge), provides a brief insight into the temporal or imperfect aspects of our natures. Perhaps even more profoundly, in verse 12, comes the idea that the world as we perceive it is deluded. For now we see in a mirror dimly. Our capacities for perceiving reality as it truly is, is bound by our own imperfection.

[This message is brought to you by team total depravity, ha!]

So, perhaps the postmodernists have it right, we as only humans are incapable of discerning the whole truth. However, just because we are incapable does not mean absolute truth does not exist. The Truth divinely encounters us here in this place, in this Word (law and gospel), in these sacraments, and through His Spirit. Just as the Perfect encountered Paul on the road to Damascus. The partial (the lies and delusions) literally fell like scales from his eyes.

So for me, and I hope for you, churchgoing is not a Christian obligation, status move, or purely a social event. Rather, it is an opportunity to encounter the Perfect. It is a chance to shed the partial, the lies, and the delusions permeating our lives and world, those competing for control of our internal narrative. Here within this church, these imperfect bodies and minds will never be closer to the truth as we wait for the partial to pass away.