Thoughts that carry this broken pastor to Jesus, and to the cross.

“How long, you sluggard, will you lie there? When will you rise from your sleep? A little sleep, a little slumber, a little folding of the hands to relax, and your poverty will come like a robber, and your need like an armed man.” (Proverbs 6:9–11, NET)

“The world is sleeping in the dark, that the church just can’t fight, because its asleep in the light….”

. Every font is now charged with spiritual fire, and from every chalice we now drink sacramental blood. Adam mutinously ate from a tree and its fruit killed him; we meekly eat from the tree of the cross, and its fruitful flesh restores our life.

Thus, missionary zeal has nothing at all to do with the conquest of a person or people, but rather with enabling all to give their lives the deepest and most joyful meaning possible. The Church but reflects Christ’s light and permits people to experience in the Eucharist God’s presence in Christ’s sacrifice, and thereby the divine invitation to adore and glorify Him, the triune God.

My generation of church leaders heard the words of Keith Green’s song as a prophetic message, judging the church of its day, and their lack of helping people see the incredible intimate relationship we have in Christ. We swore we would never be like that, that our generation would be the one that would see the world change again, that as servant leaders of the church, we would see revival far greater than Azusa Street or  Caine Ridge, a reformation and restoration of the church that had only been a dream for Luther and those who followed.

40 years later, our churches are even more empty, and “asleep in the light” is not just a spiritual statement, but often a physical one, as our leaders are no longer in their 50s and 60s, but many of them over 80!

We are asleep here in the USA, and in Europe, and the hope of the church has begun to be found in East Africa, and in the wilds of South and Central America and Southeast Asia and Korea. In those areas, the gospel in thriving, in ours it looks more like the living room during a bowl game, those that remain are snoring.

Our answers aren’t even really answers! They are hypothesis that are being un-retired, programs that mimic those which were once considered effective, or “modified” from those which seem effective now, without any study or long range success. Books written, seminars sponsored (usually led by formerly burned out pastors who weren’t successful) coaches contracted, all to achieve what should naturally be achieved, if we are being restored by the Body and Blood, nailed to the cross, which enters us each and every week!

The answer to spiritual apathy, to spiritual low-blood sugar isn’t monitoring and reading, it is having something to eat!

Pope Benedict XVI understood this in a similar way to Keith Green, as he describes the driving force of missionary zeal to be found in the intimacy of the Eucharist, in the presence of God as Christ has given Himself, (once and for all ) for us. That invitation into adoration that occurs during the Feast is life giving, life restoring, freeing it again from the life draining bondage of sin and a unrighteous world.

That’s why Keith ended his call to missionary action with these words,

Come away, come away
Come away with me, my love
Come away from this mess
Come away with me, my lov
Come away from this mess
Come away with me, my love
Come away, come away, oh
Come away with me, my love

In the sacraments, we find that we do “come away” with Jesus, only to find out that we awaken from our broken slumber, and see that others can be share in this life and glory of Christ as well… and we find ourselves given to this task… and content to see God provide the revival.

Keith Green, No Compromise – 1978

Fagerberg, D. W. (2019). Liturgical Mysticism (p. 38). Emmaus Academic.

De Gaál, E. (2018). O Lord, I Seek Your Countenance: Explorations and Discoveries in Pope Benedict XVI’s Theology (M. Levering, Ed.; p. 53). Emmaus Academic.