Protect me, Lord God!
    I run to you for safety,
and I have said,
    “Only you are my Lord!
Every good thing I have
    is a gift from you.”

Your people are wonderful,
    and they make me happy,
but worshipers of other gods
    will have much sorrow.
I refuse to offer sacrifices
of blood to those gods
    or worship in their name.

You, Lord, are all I want!
You are my choice,
    and you keep me safe.
You make my life pleasant,
    and my future is bright.

I praise you, Lord,
    for being my guide.
Even in the darkest night,
    your teachings fill my mind.
I will always look to you,
as you stand beside me
    and protect me from fear.
With all my heart,
I will celebrate,
    and I can safely rest.

I am your chosen one.
You won’t leave me in the grave
    or let my body decay.
You have shown me
    the path to life,
and you make me glad
    by being near to me.
Sitting at your right side,
    I will always be joyful. (Contemporary English Version)

The psalmist is profoundly glad to be with God and God’s people – but not with worshipers of other gods.

We live in an age where there are many people who are glad about God – they have a deep sense of spirituality and rely upon prayer. But they are not at all glad about the church or any sort of organized religion. They want nothing to do with it.

Why? Because they’ve had a bad, even traumatic, experience with gathered worshipers. Their experience has been one of observing worshipers offer blood sacrifices to a god they aren’t familiar with.

Unfortunately, the spiritually wounded are walking among us, too numerous to count. And this is mostly why church attendance in the Western world has dropped precipitously. After all, nobody wants to be a part of something where a pastor or priest preys upon innocent people; where a congregation seeks more people just to get money for their building; or where the people justify hate toward others in the name of religion.

I don’t want that either. Namely, because I have seen and experienced those things myself within various faith communities. Persons who know me well have sometimes expressed, “Why do you keep pastoring churches? Why put yourself in that position again and again?” For me, it’s a simple, yet heartfelt answer. I typically respond with sincerity, “The church is a whore, but I still love her.”

For me, it won’t do to simply retreat into a privatized religion and forget about the church and God’s people; Christianity is communal, not just personal. I can no more forsake the family of God and my spiritual DNA any more than I could deny my family of origin and my biological DNA.

I’m not suggesting that any of us put up with bad behavior and folks acting like a stupid cow instead of a person. Instead, I am insisting that a well-rounded worship of God requires the individual to be intimately connected with a community of redeemed persons.

Holy Scripture knows nothing of a solitary independent believer who has no links to God’s people. And, I might add, it just won’t do to have a virtual social media presence but never actually interact with people in the flesh. That’s not old fashioned; it’s biblical wisdom.

At some point, we must trust God. If we put our life out there by driving on a highway every day; and if we take risks with investing money or starting something new; then it only makes spiritual sense that we also trust God to take care of us and protect us in dealing with not only the world, but also with the church and God’s people.

We might believe that joy comes from getting everything we want, or being alone and living as a hermit in the woods, or surrounding ourselves with animals instead of people; yet, we were created by God for community, and so, we shall only find joy in the context of community.

The path to death is littered with the remains of people who thought that separation from others (or particular persons) was the path to life. The forces of darkness still use the tactic of divide and conquer because it works. But if God’s people focus on what unites us, and we choose to lock arms in love, no matter what, we will learn that the hard path of life is worth it.

It won’t do, for church folk to belittle others who have run from organized religion; and conversely, it won’t do, for those far from the community, to play armchair quarterback and criticize everything the church does.

We really need to open our clenched fists of ensconced hermeneutical approaches, pet preachers, beloved programs, isolationist ways, heady cerebral thoughts, and petty pride, so that we can then hold hands with our sisters and brothers in humble trust and faith.

In this Christian season of Eastertide, we have the perspective of understanding that it takes a cross to have a resurrection, that there must be suffering before glory, and that sorrow always precedes joy. We now need to take the next step, by a willingness to put in the blood, sweat, and tears necessary for both a good relationship with God and a robustly helpful relationship with God’s people.

So, what will you choose? And what will you do?

God of all, we pray as one, that we may be one, just as the Lord Jesus prayed we may be one in him. Your son Jesus compels us to be reconciled to one another. May our spirits be joined to your Holy Spirit, so that we may witness to the visible unity of your Church. May we all recognize that we are truly one with you – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – and grow together in peace. We ask this in the name of Jesus our risen Lord. Amen.