The Madness of Church
The Madness of Church
Sometimes the meanest people carry the biggest Bibles. Czeslaw Milosz, a polish poet who wrote powerfully during World War II and the Stalinization of his country afterwards, once wrote to his American monk friend Thomas Merton that he would not let his sons attend church because he “did not want to make atheists out of them.” Zack Eswine, pastor and seminary pastor, writes: “It has often been in church and among church folks that God has recovered my sense of him…(but they have) also rabble roused me…I too have been tempted to quit them…Many nights, they’ve flopped me over like a fish and filleted me down the middle. My innards have come out only to get quickly discarded in the trash.” Sometimes the church adds madness to our lives. Ecclesiastes 5.1-7 is an honest, uncomfortable, and yet needed look at the church “under the sun.”
Some of us will think Ecclesiastes’ take on the church is too pessimistic, “No way! Not my church. Not my Baptist-Bible-Methodist-Charismatic-Presbyterian-Lutheran-Missional-Victorious life-Worship filled-First and Full Discipleship church!” The temptation for you according to Ecclesiastes will be to over-spiritualize your church, a fancy word for delusion and denial. Others of us who have been deeply hurt by the church will say, “Finally. Finally someone is willing to tell the truth.” The temptation for you according to Ecclesiastes will be to leave the church. Ecclesiastes wants us to go to church, but to go in an honest redemptive way.
Does the church add madness to our lives? Yup. “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God (v.1).” The preacher in Ecclesiastes is saying, “When you go to church be careful.” Why? The answer is because there are fools in church: “To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil (v.1).”
Throughout the Bible a “fool” is a self-centered person to their own harm and the harm of others. There are two important ingredients to “foolishness.” The first is a deep suspicion of God, specifically His personal and active love. The second flows from the first, a deep need to trust yourself instead of God. Notice that the foolish person in Ecclesiastes is serious about God, enough to know they must bring a “sacrifice” to church. So what is the problem with this churched person? What is so evil about their approach to church? The answer is doing the right thing for the wrong reason, or offering a sacrifice (right thing) of fools (wrong reason). We can do ministry in the church (right thing) to be important or to be affirmed and adored by others (wrong reason). The point Ecclesiastes is making is our heart is a big deal, we can do church for self-centered or foolish reasons, and those self-centered or foolish reasons end up flowing out of our heart and into our life, relationships, and the culture of the church in embodied ways – harming everything.
Historically theologians have called churched self-centeredness legalism, moralism, or self-righteousness. Some present day theologians call it “self-salvation” or a “religious spirit” that strives to be good enough, acceptable enough, pleasing enough, obedient enough, and lovable enough in order to be enough, loved, accepted, justified, and blessed. One present-day pastor and theologian, Sinclair Ferguson, calls churched self-centeredness a “metallic spirit,” by which he means a spirit or heart that is metal-like. The preacher of Ecclesiastes says a “metallic spirit” is always the last to know he is, even though it is painfully obvious to everyone else around him: “they do not know that they are doing evil (v.1).” Furthermore the preacher says a “metallic spirit” is chronically and addictively self-justifying, obsessively trying to prove herself in thought, word, and deed to God, others, and herself (vv. 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7).
Good grief! If church adds this metallic madness to our lives, why go to church? The preacher answers with one powerful reason: “draw near to listen” (v.1).” Who are we drawing near to listen to? God. Why go to church? The answer is because God shows up at church, because God breaks in to our lives individually and corporately at church. Fasten your seat belts and put on your crash helmets when you enter church because divine collisions take place at church. This is why we go to church.
When you went to Temple in those days everything about the Temple shouted, “You’re a fool! You’re self-centered! You’re so messed-up!” You could smell it, the metallic smell of blood hanging in the air from the sacrifices. You could hear it, the desperate bleating of the sacrificial animals as they smelled death all around them. You could see it, every step toward the Most Holy Place in Temple increased the potency of holiness and a potential cosmic threat . And yet the God of this Temple says, “Draw near.” Today we go to church to draw near to God not because of temporary and ineffective animal sacrifices but because of the Better Sacrifice, who absorbed and dealt with all our self-centeredness on the Cross. Let’s go to church, to find the kind of God who is already finding us through his Better Sacrifice, and watch our metallic spirits become human again.
Sometimes the meanest people carry the biggest Bibles. Czeslaw Milosz, a polish poet who wrote powerfully during World War II and the Stalinization of his country afterwards, once wrote to his American monk friend Thomas Merton that he would not let his sons attend church because he “did not want to make atheists out of them.” Zack Eswine, pastor and seminary pastor, writes: “It has often been in church and among church folks that God has recovered my sense of him…(but they have) also rabble roused me…I too have been tempted to quit them…Many nights, they’ve flopped me over like a fish and filleted me down the middle. My innards have come out only to get quickly discarded in the trash.” Sometimes the church adds madness to our lives. Ecclesiastes 5.1-7 is an honest, uncomfortable, and yet needed look at the church “under the sun.”
Some of us will think Ecclesiastes’ take on the church is too pessimistic, “No way! Not my church. Not my Baptist-Bible-Methodist-Charismatic-Presbyterian-Lutheran-Missional-Victorious life-Worship filled-First and Full Discipleship church!” The temptation for you according to Ecclesiastes will be to over-spiritualize your church, a fancy word for delusion and denial. Others of us who have been deeply hurt by the church will say, “Finally. Finally someone is willing to tell the truth.” The temptation for you according to Ecclesiastes will be to leave the church. Ecclesiastes wants us to go to church, but to go in an honest redemptive way.
Does the church add madness to our lives? Yup. “Guard your steps when you go to the house of God (v.1).” The preacher in Ecclesiastes is saying, “When you go to church be careful.” Why? The answer is because there are fools in church: “To draw near to listen is better than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil (v.1).”
Throughout the Bible a “fool” is a self-centered person to their own harm and the harm of others. There are two important ingredients to “foolishness.” The first is a deep suspicion of God, specifically His personal and active love. The second flows from the first, a deep need to trust yourself instead of God. Notice that the foolish person in Ecclesiastes is serious about God, enough to know they must bring a “sacrifice” to church. So what is the problem with this churched person? What is so evil about their approach to church? The answer is doing the right thing for the wrong reason, or offering a sacrifice (right thing) of fools (wrong reason). We can do ministry in the church (right thing) to be important or to be affirmed and adored by others (wrong reason). The point Ecclesiastes is making is our heart is a big deal, we can do church for self-centered or foolish reasons, and those self-centered or foolish reasons end up flowing out of our heart and into our life, relationships, and the culture of the church in embodied ways – harming everything.
Historically theologians have called churched self-centeredness legalism, moralism, or self-righteousness. Some present day theologians call it “self-salvation” or a “religious spirit” that strives to be good enough, acceptable enough, pleasing enough, obedient enough, and lovable enough in order to be enough, loved, accepted, justified, and blessed. One present-day pastor and theologian, Sinclair Ferguson, calls churched self-centeredness a “metallic spirit,” by which he means a spirit or heart that is metal-like. The preacher of Ecclesiastes says a “metallic spirit” is always the last to know he is, even though it is painfully obvious to everyone else around him: “they do not know that they are doing evil (v.1).” Furthermore the preacher says a “metallic spirit” is chronically and addictively self-justifying, obsessively trying to prove herself in thought, word, and deed to God, others, and herself (vv. 2, 3, 5, 6, and 7).
Good grief! If church adds this metallic madness to our lives, why go to church? The preacher answers with one powerful reason: “draw near to listen” (v.1).” Who are we drawing near to listen to? God. Why go to church? The answer is because God shows up at church, because God breaks in to our lives individually and corporately at church. Fasten your seat belts and put on your crash helmets when you enter church because divine collisions take place at church. This is why we go to church.
When you went to Temple in those days everything about the Temple shouted, “You’re a fool! You’re self-centered! You’re so messed-up!” You could smell it, the metallic smell of blood hanging in the air from the sacrifices. You could hear it, the desperate bleating of the sacrificial animals as they smelled death all around them. You could see it, every step toward the Most Holy Place in Temple increased the potency of holiness and a potential cosmic threat . And yet the God of this Temple says, “Draw near.” Today we go to church to draw near to God not because of temporary and ineffective animal sacrifices but because of the Better Sacrifice, who absorbed and dealt with all our self-centeredness on the Cross. Let’s go to church, to find the kind of God who is already finding us through his Better Sacrifice, and watch our metallic spirits become human again.
Recent
Archive
2026
Categories
no categories