Why is our Christianity so Immature?

I’ve just sneaked back home under a volcanic ash cloud. The Munich Passport Contoller who said the flight was cancelled was wrong.

I’ve said various things about Kirchentag, but it is remarkable how the Germans do serious theology on a mass scale.

Equally remarkable was the age breakdown of 167,000 people a day doing this:
. 7,68% Unter 12 Jahren
. 13,74% 12 bis 17 Jahre
. 16,45% 18 bis 29 Jahre
. 7,77% 30 bis 39 Jahre
. 19,07% 40 bis 49 Jahre
. 18,12% 50 bis 59 Jahre
. 7,34% 60 bis 65 Jahre
. 9,83% über 65 Jahre

Think about it.
Incidentally, where were the 30-39’s?

Thoughts such as these, Nick Baines’ reaction to the Hans Küng / Jurgen Moltmann evening, struck me again and again —

This evening was remarkable. Thousands arrived early to ensure a place in the auditorium – I got there for 6.30pm thinking it began at 7pm only to find it was scheduled to start at 7.30pm and didn’t in fact get going until 8pm. More people were locked out than could get in. The excluded crowds chanted ‘Wir wollen rein’ (‘We want to come in’) to listen to these two elderly men talk together about church.

Can you imagine that ever happening in Britain? Most of the excluded were young people eager to garner the wisdom of these two theologians. Why? Because their theology is neither dry nor ‘merely academic’, but engages with the real world of economics, politics and culture. They bring to their subject the intellectual rigour that is associated with German philosophical thinking. Yet, they speak with simplicity, clarity and passion – eschewing theological cleverness in order to communicate accessibly with all-comers: they are remarkable men who show no sign of being ego-driven.

This brings to mind a disturbing question posed by Richard Rohr, Franciscan priest and spirituality wonk, about why the way we do Christianity in the West is so childish and discombobulated by rushes to judgment:

All spiritual teachers tell us “DO NOT JUDGE.” For those of us raised in a religious setting, this is very difficult. In a strange way, religion gave us all a Ph.D. in judgmentalism. It trained us very early in life to categorize, label, and critique. It told us all about worthiness and unworthiness. This judgmental mind told us what is right and wrong, who is gay or straight, and who is good or bad. This sort of mind never creates great people, because everybody has to fit into our way of thinking. At an early age our grid was complete. We had decided who fit in and who did not fit in. We fashioned our own little world.

Christianity that divides the world in this manner and eliminates all troublesome people and all ideas different from our way of thinking cannot be mature religion. It cannot see the multiple gifts of each moment, nor the dark side that coexists with it. This mind does not lead us to awareness, and above all, this mind will find it impossible to contemplate. To practice awareness means you live in a spirit of communion; your world becomes alive and very spacious, and not divided by mere mental labels.

MK on the Isar

Here, in the Agora of the largest Christian Get-together in Europe, Milton Keynes Ecumenical Partnership have taken a stall. It’s dominated by Mrs Lazarus, by local sculptor David Moore. She was aspin off from Robert Koenig’s Odyssey project, which celebrated the East European relatives he never knew, some of whom had perished in the holocaust, and some of whom he had not been allwed access to as young man because of the divisions of Europe.

Mrs Lazarus has graced the Church of Christ the Cornerstone, on and off, for the past two years. She gained her name from the sculpotor's mpother, who kept returning from death’s door. The last eighteen months of her life, she picked up the name and it suck. She died at the age of 94 in March this year.

Like Lazarus, Mrs Lazarus is wrapped, with only her feet showing — the message is “we’ve only just begun” on the Ecumenical journey. The unwrapped portion of the bandage carries specific photographs and messages about inclusion, surprising new relationships, the joy of coming in many colours, and the challenge of faith-keeping. Text cards are also being distributed with quotations from pope Paul VI, Dom Helder Camara, and Fr Harry Williams, CR. The last is particularly significant:

God’s Love for me is his love for the world,
and so is mine for God,
if it is genuine.

Everything will be revealed when Mrs Lazarus returns to Milton Keynes, including the host of messages she has collected during her time in Munich. Sjould you be one of the 300,000 people celebrating hope in MInich, she can be found at stall A6 D09 in the Messe.