God Satisfies the Hungry Heart

It is at her center, where her truest children dwell, that each communion is really closest to every other in spirit, if not in doctrine.  And this suggests that at the center of each there is a something, or a Someone, who against all divergencies of belief, all differences of temperament, all memories of mutual persecution, speaks with the same voice.
                                    -- C.S. Lewis, from the Preface to Mere Christianity

Each one of us must make the same journey, that of Abraham, from idols---those things in which we first believed and trusted----to the Presence of God in our lives.  God has no grandchildren; each generation must be converted anew.  Each person has to discover for himself the love and the faithfulness of God.  Each person must discover that "God satisfies the hunger of the heart." 

And that means that we must all, in our own ways, first experience the hunger that can be satisfied only with God Himself.  In speaking to one another, as long as we are focusing on revealing how God has satisfied the hunger of our own hearts, we are drawn together by the One God, by the One Spirit.  Often, however, what we speak to one another is not a personal story, but congregational doctrine.

As long as we were---and are--- a small group of people "sharing our stories," and rejoicing in what God has done for us, how He has led us out of darkness into His marvelous light, we find unity of experience and common ground.  And people are drawn to us, because they too are hungry for what only God can give.  As the congregation grows, we encounter the same problems that plagued the first congregation:  we need organization. 

In the Acts of the Apostles, as the community shared their possessions, they quickly found that they needed "an organization."  Someone had to collect the offerings and distribute bread to the widows and orphans.  At first, the Apostles were willing and able to do so, but as the congregation grew, they found that being administrators kept them from dedication to the Word of the Lord.  So Deacons were appointed to distribute goods to the poor.  And as the congregation continued to grow, there were differences of opinion/doctrine about what was the right thing to do about Jewish laws---circumcision? dietary regulations?  They needed a board of governors to ponder the prevailing questions, and one leader to speak for the group and to promulgate their decisions.  

There has always been tension between the organizational and the prophetic church, but both are needed.  Even in the early days of Israel in the Promised Land, everyone tried to live as he saw fit, devoted to the Lord, but they quickly discovered that they needed a king---someone to gather them together for their own protection and mutual support.  The danger is always that once we have a king, a leader, a central authority, that we will put our faith in the leader and the organizational processes and forget that what brought us together in the first place was the voice of God, who satisfied our hunger. 

My own experience is that when individuals are listening to the Spirit, walking with God in their daily lives, they are drawn together by the mutual love of Christ, despite all doctrinal differences.  When church members are more devoted to their organizational processes and beliefs than they are to God, there will be division.

Richard Rohr says this:

It is not enough to say that your mother is a Christian, that your father is a Catholic.  Until you come to that moment in your own life when you choose the God you will serve, you have not been converted.  And the reason why the Scriptures do not speak to most Catholics in our own day is, quite simply, that they have never experienced this conversion.  Since they have not heard God's Word in their lives, they cannot respond to God's Word in the Bible.
                                                       --- Rohr, The Great Themes of Scripture

I know Jesus is Lord of each life, but I look around my own church and want to cry.  How many have experienced the hunger for God and been satisfied?  How many are Christians and Catholics because that's how they grew up?  Do we need a place where we can begin to share our own stories about the Voice and the Word of the Lord in our lives?