Why People Come to Church
Christ’s Charge to Peter by Bernardo Strozzi,
1630, Chazen Museum of Art, Madison, WI
Jacob Wrestles with God
Genesis 32:22-28
That night Jacob got up and took his two wives, his two maidservants and his eleven sons and crossed the ford of the Jabbok. After he had sent them across the stream, he sent over all his possessions. So Jacob was left alone, and a man wrestled with him till daybreak. When the man saw that he could not overpower him, he touched the socket of Jacob’s hip so that his hip was wrenched as he wrestled with the man. Then the man said, "Let me go, for it is daybreak."
But Jacob replied, "I will not let you go unless you bless me."
The man asked him, "What is your name?"
"Jacob," he answered.
Then the man said, "Your name will no longer be Jacob, but Israel, because you have struggled with God and with men and have overcome."
Peter’s Confession of Christ
Matthew 16:13-18
When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"
They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it. "
There are lots of reasons why people come to church. There are lots of different reasons why people read the Bible or go to a Bible study class. There are many different reasons people seek God. There are many reasons why people seek a way to follow God and have Him in their lives.
I am honored to get together with you and try and work this out. I think one of the things I am called to do is to encourage you in your faith, be it a little or a lot. I feel like I am called to walk with you and to offer ideas and suggestions as to how we can find what we are all seeking in simple, easy-to-understand terms.
I am also called to listen to your ideas and suggestions and learn from them, and to apply them to what I do. An important truth I like to share is that God has everything we need. I think that every reason why someone comes to church, every reason why someone reads the Bible or attends a Bible study class, every reason why someone seeks God or seeks a way to follow God and have Him in their lives is a useful reason, and a stepping stone to a closer relationship with the Father.
Somebody’s going to say "Wait a minute, what about people that come to church but don’t believe, or that follow another religion? What about people that come to church just to find a girlfriend or a boyfriend? What about someone that comes to church just to get a donation to pay a bill, or someone who comes just to get food from the food pantry? How about a businessman who comes to church just to make a business deal with someone who is a churchgoer? How about someone who comes to church just to steal from the offering?"
People that come to church but don’t believe, or follow another religion?
Well, if you don’t believe, where should you go? If someone of another religion doesn’t know Jesus, where are they going to get a glimpse of Him?
People that come to church just to find a girlfriend or a boyfriend?
A Christian woman’s heart is so given to Jesus, that a man will have to find Christ to find her.
What about someone that comes to church just to get a donation to pay a bill, or someone who comes just to get food from the food pantry?
Our gifts come from God, through us, to others. Those are ministry opportunities which are good for us, AND the person receives gifts from God. It’s win-win situation.
How about a businessman who comes to church just to make a business deal with someone who is a churchgoer?
That business deal is going to be wrapped up in Jesus. A Christian businessman will do his business by the Father’s rulebook, and the other fellow gets a lot more than he bargained for!
How about someone who comes to church just to steal from the offering?
That’s easy. God provides. You can’t steal from God. If it’s not in His plan for you to get it, there’s no way you could get it. It would be like a quarter super-glued to the sidewalk. And if it is in His plan, it’s not stealing, it’s a gift. That person may think he’s stealing, but God is actually giving it to the thief. It’s like a bag from a bank robbery. They put those little exploding canisters of dye in the bag and the robber gets painted and the money is painted too. That offering is dedicated to God and He’s all inside it and all over it. You take some of that money and run, and you’re going to get God all over you! God says, "Are you stealing from me? I’m all over you! I’m going to grab you, and hold you, and love you, and change you…"
There are extreme situations, "What if someone wants to blow up the church", things like that, but even then, how we respond with the part of God that is in us, can make all the difference and turn a bad situation into a good one.
Remember a few years ago when a mentally ill man went into the Amish school, killed those kids and then killed himself? Then what happened? That whole community took the family of that man into their hearts and loved them and prayed for them and served them. That is such an important light pointing to the power of God to transform bad into good.
My point is that God has what we need, whoever we are, wherever we are, and whatever situation we are in. That’s why someone who has been going to church for years, and someone who is coming to church for the first time can both get something out of the experience, anywhere they find God.
We all don’t like to eat the same things, but we can all go to the same Ole Time Country Buffet and get something to eat. The gifts of God are like a buffet of love, forgiveness, provision, insight, knowledge, compassion, love, and more love, and each person can get just what he needs.
We are all beautiful and uniquely made. All our needs are different. God knows us personally and He knows what we need. He knows what we need for the place we are in our lives and He will provide exactly that for us. What we bring to the buffet is our hunger. We are hungry for God.
Many people feel that there is something missing from their lives. We may have the right job, the right car, and the right house; but when all is said and done, the hunger remains. "If I had that one last ingredient, everything would be OK". I believe that is the still small voice of God, speaking to us and beckoning us. It whispers, it doesn’t yell, it’s not pushy. It’s a little voice inside saying "Here I am, I love you". Our response is to say "Yes Lord, HERE I AM", and let go of the imaginary control we think we have of our lives, letting God in to do what He does so well.
These readings speak to part of what happens when we are in the presence of God. In the Old Testament, Jacob, the son of Isaac, the grandson of Abraham, wrestles with an angel of God, the presence of God. As dawn breaks, the angel gives Jacob the name Israel, "one who struggles with God". In the ancient world knowing the name of something or someone, was thought to give power to the person who knew the name. If you think about it, it’s the same today. Naming is very important. We have everything in common with the children of Israel, we are the "people who struggle with God"
In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus asks Simon a very important question. Knowing His name is to know who God is. Jesus then gives Simon the name Peter.
Knowing Jesus is to be changed forever, to your very core. At the core of who we are is our name. It may be a nickname, or we may be named after our father or mother. These things refer to relationships with important people in our lives, or important qualities we have.
The most important relationship we can have is to be a Child of God. Christians are followers of Jesus Christ. Please be very careful, because being a Christian, or a follower of Jesus Christ, is not to put down or denigrate any other religion in any way. Jesus is the key to the kingdom of heaven, and is meant to be shared in love, not lorded over anyone. Every human being is loved by God, every single one.
There are many deeply spiritual people in this world who are not yet Christians. We who are Christians, who have knowledge of the Risen Lord, have a gift, and the same way God approaches us: in love, ever so gently, is the only way we should ever approach anyone else with the knowledge of Jesus Christ. We are to be fishers of men, spreading God’s love and information about the love of Jesus everywhere we go, but not at the point of a sword, or down the barrel of a gun.
What we will find is that through our experience of God, at the very center of our lives, our essential nature is changed forever, and we are given a new name.