Wasn’t it Groucho Marx who said that he wouldn’t want to be part of any club that would have him as a member? Such an attitude is what drives so many folk to try and privatize Christianity.

"You don’t need the church to be a Christian."

I hear it often but the truth is you do.

The church is the living reality of what Jesus did so long ago. It is the symbol of God’s identification with creation. Now, the church, as anyone who has hung out around here for very long could tell you, is anything but perfect.

And that is precisely the point.

The point is that God can be found in the imperfection. God can be found in the ordinariness. God can be found in the relationships that are made manifest in the local congregation.

This is who our God is. Our God is not some distant cosmic rule book. Our God stood in line at the Jordan. Our God sits next to us in the pew. Our God is with us.

Emmanuel.