Churches were growing in influence. Many of them drew large crowds of people to their services. Church leaders were not merely spiritual leaders, they were civic and social leaders as well. They had created educational systems to train children and found ways to care for the poor.
But as the church became an essential part of the fabric of life, there were dissenters that arose. There were those who protested the large institutions, condemning their wealth. These dissenters want to "get back to how things were." They wanted to live as the early Apostles did. Many of those who were in various ways part of the "Apostolic Life" movement embraced poverty, lived simply, and spoke harshly against the Church. The Church returned the favor by marginalizing these preachers as lunatics and condemning these wandering preachers as heretics.
There was one wandering preacher, a friar, who gained a large following and was especially well-loved by the populus. He, however, refused to speak against the church. In fact, he sought a meeting with the pope to ask for his blessing on his way of life. His humility was met with graciousness. The pope said that he could keep preaching, but to keep his sermons to moral preaching, and to stay away from theological issues. After all, the young wandering preacher was only semi-literate, considered an idiotae to the clergy. The young preacher agreed and his movement continued to flourish.
Were it not for his refusal to curse the institutional church and his desire to seek their blessing instead...
Were it not for the Church's willingness to listen to his prophetic critique and bless his ministry...
...we may not have known St. Francis of Assisi.
This is a sketch of the cultural landscape of "Western Europe" in the 11th and 12th centuries. Sounds familiar, though, doesn't it?
In our own day, there are many who are troubled, perhaps even disillusioned, with the institutional church. But the story of St. Francis may be instructive for us: we will never gain the right to change the Church if we are content to criticize it.
Francis wrote:
"...the Lord gave me and still gives me such faith in priests...I am unwilling to preach against their will in the parishes where they dwell. I wish to fear, to love, and to honor them and other [priests] as my lords. I do not wish to consider the sin in them, since I see the Son of God in them..."
There is, however, a mile of difference between being critical and offering a prophetic critique. Some who see clearly the faults of a consumer-oriented "machine church" want to "get back to how things were" with the Apostles. But the trouble is we can't. We are now. We live now. This is the state of things. So, what should do? How do we move forward?
For those who seek to reform the Church:
- Will you refrain from cursing the Church in order to gain the power to change it?
- Will you "stay in your lane" and teach and preach what you know and not extend into areas you are not yet equipped for?
For those who lead the "Church":
- Are you willing to listen to the young "upstart" with a passionate vision, who imagines a "different way" of doing things?
- Will you counsel him or her to stay within the bounds of their knowledge and experience?
For all of us, whoever you see yourself as in the story-- the young friar or the pope-- can we accept that God works within imperfect, less than ideal situations? Are we willing to surrender our search for the Platonic ideal of a "true model" of "doing" or "being" Church and believe that God is at work right now, even in your church?
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