Have we misplaced our metaphors?

When I began smoking cigars, I became part of an online forum for cigar enthusiasts.  I joined largely so I could ask questions and learn more about my new hobby.  It didn't take long to discover that the forum wasn't really about cigars.  Cigars are more of a metaphor around which a virtual community has sprouted.  It's a community where everyone's contribution is valued, but no one's value is in any way measured according to their contribution.

Think about that for a moment.  Pretend you're a welcome part of a community that values your gifts to that community - whatever they may be.  Just imagine that your value to the community is not based on the perceived value of your gifts, but on your having a relationship to the metaphor that draws the community together.  Think how it would be if some measure of "quality" or "quantity" of that relationship were not a benchmark for your worth in the community.

In the cigar forum I mentioned, I am among the newest and least frequent smokers, and I possess one of the smallest stashes of smokes.  I do have an amazing humidor, but I wouldn't have that without the forum.  In spite of the fact that I am at the low end of devotion to the metaphor, in terms of measurable, physical "stuff," even the elders of the tribe enjoy my conversation.  I haven't randomly dropped a bunch of cigars in anyone's mailbox, but I'm made as welcome in any discussion as members who seem to send out daily "bombs."

There are leaders - moderators - who have control over many of the "facilities."  They can create new forums, move posts, close topics, suspend memberships, etc.  But their cigar reviews are taken no more seriously (or lightly) than my own.

Hopefully you don't have to pretend that you belong to such a community.  If you're really fortunate, the church you call home functions like that.  But, sadly, that kind of "community of believers" is all-too-rare.  Churches tend to value people according to what they bring to the table, rather than appreciating the gift, while valuing the giver only as a follower of Jesus.  Followers of Jesus are valued - or evaluated - according to how well their footsteps fall into the community's definition of a pathway that leads to him.

In the online world, a cigar is a good metaphor to meet around.  It's not the only one, but, based upon my experience, it's a really good one.  What do our churches gather around?  Meetings, for one thing.  "Gathering together" is an excuse to have a meeting, instead of a response to missing each other's presence.  Meetings exist to accomplish purposes of worship, mission, teaching, donation, organizational maintenance, etc.  These are the metaphors arround which we often try to build communities of faith.  Jesus is only rarely the metaphor for our gatherings.

Wait just a minute!!!!! Jesus isn't a metaphor - Jesus is God!  How can I even suggest that it's a good idea to meet around a metaphorical Christ?  Let's go back to the cigar metaphor.  Most of us on the forums will never smoke an actual, physical cigar together.  So, the cigar is a bonding metaphor that joins us into a community that believes in serving others.  A tribe that teaches the joy of giving a gift and the humility of receiving one.  But, that doesn't change for those members who gather together and burn actual cigars in a single place.  So, even the reality of a cigar serves as a metaphor.

This is a weak reflection of the God/Jesus/Spirit role as the spark that fires our gatherings, but it does help illustrate a problem in churches today.  Many churches gather around only a metaphor of the Divine, using him as a point of contact where people can be encouraged (or driven) to serve, give, worship, etc.  Other churches refuse to see any value in this metaphor, and meet only to encounter the Divine.  For them a, cigar is just a cigar.  Either extreme is terribly unbalanced.

True church community can grow to full strength only when the metaphoric and literal Godhead share a place of honor.  Which comes first?  The reality or the metaphor?  There were cigars before there was a forum for cigar enthusiasts.  But before the forum there were cigar enthusiasts looking for a place to learn to be - and to help others become - better people.  I don't think it matters which comes first.  For some it will be the metaphor of God; for others the reality; and for some - both at once.  Just another pointless argument if we try to pursue it very far.

I hope you live in such a spiritual community.  I hope you live in other communities that function this way as well.  I hope that whatever community you find yourself in, you can find, demonstrate, and enjoy both the real and the metaphorical wellspring of your tribe.

There are leaders in the church - pastors, elders, deacons, teachers, etc. - whose goal is to care for the sheep.  To guard them from wild beasts, to steer them safely to pasture and back home again.  To live in tune with the Great Shepherd so that they can see and immediately follow his verbal and manual commands.  To watch over the flock without need, hope, or desire for anything more than basic rewards of food,  shelter, and some companionship with the Shepherd.  They take no ownership interest in the sheep, nor do they kill and eat them.  They are like sheepdogs, helping the Great Shepherd take care of the flock.  They help guide and protect the sheep.  Their work is their reward - it is the nature of sheepdogs to love herding-duties.

And then there are pastors, elders, deacons, teachers, and so on, who make the flock their own, and usurp the authority of the Great Shepherd.  These leaders, who should be sheepdogs, want to be shepherds and sheep-ranchers and livestock-owners in their own right.  And they surround themselves with lapdogs who pant after their every word.  Little dogs who live only to chase a bouncing ball, to eat mutton-flavored treats from their human master's hand, and to cuddle up with master and make him feel wanted, powerful, and important.  They are blindly obedient to the human who trained them.

Look out, folks - I have a feeling God is separating the sheepdogs from the lapdogs.