Brought Together By God

Thomas Merton writes, "So now is the time to tell a thing that I could not realize then, but which has become very clear to me: that God brought me and half a dozen others together at Columbia, and made us friends, in such a way that our friendship would work powerfully to rescue us from the confusion and the misery in which we had come to find ourselves, partly through our own fault, and partly through a complex set of circumstances which might be grouped together under the heading of the 'modern world,' 'modern society.' But the qualification 'modern' is perhaps unnecessary and perhaps unfair. The traditional Gospel term, 'the world,' will do well enough."

I would suggest that a lot of churches, and maybe even denominations, form this way. There is a large element of mystery about it because we often don't see God working behind the scenes. It is this mystery that also makes this thought repulsive to many. If it is true it requires us to change how we think about churches. We have a long established habit of judging churches.

I watched a small church die a slow death. It's numbers dwindled until finally they couldn't keep the doors open any longer. "What a waste," I thought. Why don't they pack it in and start using there resources in places that had life. I even preached there a time or two and gave them hell, fire and brimstone in the ridiculous hope that it might cause a spark.

I wish now I would have been more gracious it was God who brought these people together like this. Perhaps they were making some sense of the chaos around them. Perhaps they were providing for each other what each one needed. Perhaps they way they slowly died out was God's plan for them all along. Wasn't it presumptuous of me?

Many would answer, "Not at all. God would never be pleased with what happened in that church," they would say. But I think I will let God speak for himself on that. Perhaps I am simply not aware of enough pieces of their story. I don't know much about their families or their community or their history. Perhaps I don't see their story through God's eyes. Perhaps at one time they found themselves in confusion and misery. Perhaps God brought them together so that he could work powerfully among them.

I think I'll be okay with the mystery.