"To Be or Not To Be”

(Now Playing: Church)

Photo by Erika Giraud on Unsplash

It’s the simplest, yet most complicated, entertaining, escapist technique for both safety and survival that we learn shortly after birth. These days it is more technological and immersive, with less imagination required. Even so, the motivation has not changed. We’ve all done it, and still do in some capacity: Playact. For those from a generation of booming babies, it took the form of playing house, G.I. Joe’s, and Barbies. Using bath towels as superhero capes, and cardboard boxes for forts. Today, even one of my grandsons gets into our clothes dryer announcing that he is “going to Mars in his spaceship.” Nothing has changed. From tin soldiers to action figures, paper dolls to costume balls, Lincoln logs to Magni-tiles, Lite-Brite to lightsaber. But whatever our imaginations had painstakingly created to live in, it was always abruptly interrupted by the parental declaration, “Time for dinner!,” or “Pick up your room!” or—wait for it—“Time to go to church!”

Church. Perhaps, at times, the greatest stage of all. Whether written down in the church bulletin, or just simply floating obtrusively in the air, there are many unspoken but unmistakable church protocols (that can sometimes grow up and become bylaws). Take, for example, the famous “Meet and Greet” time that is included in some form in most church services. The only thing missing in announcing its arrival in the program are the words “Lights, Camera, Action!” While the clock is ticking, body parts in the Body of Christ start bumping into each other. Big hearts doing small talk. All the while waiting for the whistle to blow in the form of either tinkling piano keys and some officiate softly saying into a microphone, “Please take your seats,” which we do with great relief. More often than not, the close encounters of the last minute-and-a-half don’t know anything more about us, only the spiritual smoke screen of “pews, weather and sports.” Why is that?

Because one should not wear their emotions on their sleeve. When asked, “How are you?” most say “Fine,” even if they’re not. Even if they’re hurting. Even if they could barely get out of bed that morning. My wife and I have been there, when our deepest hurts demanded honesty, but our script was unapproved. After all, “There’s no business like show business,” especially the second-to-last stanza:

“You get word before the show has started,

that your favorite uncle died at dawn.

Top of that, your pa and ma have parted,

you’re broken-hearted, but you go on.”

At the outset, the whole “Meet and Greet” thing is prescribed to be brief, introductory, surface-skimming. After all, if all of the “meeters and greeters” actually encountered one another, they likely would take up sermon time by engaging in mini-sermons with each other. And rightly so, as we’re all walking-talking sermons, sermon illustrations, benedictions, altar calls.

I love the church. I grew up in the place. My first recollections are from pre-school. In many ways, I know no other life outside of the church. You might say it has become a world of mine no different than the ones I created as a child. But there is a difference. A big one. This is real, or supposed to be, warts and all. For those who know its Founder, it is the most important institution on the planet, and, by His Spirit, its most powerful force. I am fortunate to have been grafted in, solely because I know Him. So are the millions who have called God’s house home over the past two thousand years. We are all imbued with the high privilege and sobering responsibility to be the church, and not play the church.

To borrow famous words from Wild Bill Shakespeare that he gave to his Prince Hamlet: When it comes to the church, “To be or not to be” is not the question,

it is the answer.

Available where books are sold.

Brad Brown lives with the wife of his youth for 40 years, Cindy, on three acres in Franktown, Colorado, surrounded by dogs, cats, ducks, goats, and chickens. With their entire family close by - including four grandchildren - you never know when the family will drop by and add to the fun. He is the author of “The Four ‘Seasons’ of Our Father’s Evangelical Church” series.