The Great Garage Sale

In a recent book, The Great Emergence, author Phyllis Tickle uses an analogy from an Episcopal bishop that I find helpful in these changing times. The Bishop noted that every five hundred years or so the church holds a "rummage sale" in which many of the church's practices are cleaned out. Five centuries ago the Roman Catholics saw the sale lead to the Reformation. Five centuries before that the church divided into East and West in the "Great Schism". Five centuries before that Gregory the Great led a massive change that resulted in the faith being preserved in monastic settings. And five centuries before that....? About 70 ad the Jerusalem temple was destroyed and Chritianity was spreading through homes throughout Asia Minor. Today, 500 years after the Reformation, the church is clearing its attics and parlors again. This can be very unsettling as practices, rituals, and interpretations are challenged, and in many cases, replaced. However, Tickle reminds us that the Faith not only survives these garage sales it grows and its influence expands. So right now our church may seem to be in pain. I am confident that these are birth pains of God doing something new and even better than what we seem to be losing.
DMac