Now I'm not talking about those phony staged "revivals" where people desperate for an emotional "fix" from their dull lives fall on the ground weeping, have their moment, and then two months later show up at another church for another fix. Any good preacher can bring the show but when he leaves the show goes with him.
True revival changes the culture in which it occurs altering the fundamental way in which people see themselves and in turn act. The glory of the Pentecostal movements in the early part of this century had little ultimately to do with ecstatic experiences, which have been part of humanity's religious landscape since people walked the earth, but rather that it provided a common spiritual ground for people of different races and cultures to worship together, to see each other in Christ in a way that rigidly segregated American culture did not. When the Holy Spirit came to those gathered at Azusa Street a movement was born but racism in the American Church itself was fatally wounded and though the task is ongoing a great cultural evil met the power of the Holy Spirit and lost.
In this current age we'll know when revival occurs not by the emotions involved, although there may be an intitial emotional expression, but by the pornographic web sites that don't get visited, the marketers of consumption for its own sake who find their stores empty, the decline of decadent entertainments (imagine singer famous for, well, singing) and people in public life who speak remorse for their part in making our culture coarse and inhumane. People's hearts will be turned to each other and the poor will be lifted up not by government programs but by caring hearts. Our obsessive focus on self and gratification will fade away to be replaced by a life given to higher things. Drugs, violence, gangs, corporate greed, and cold hearts will be broken by the power of God. We will change not because a group of politicians passed a law but because the law of God lives in us.
And I believe it may be coming.
There are a few markers that have historically been present in American culture in the time immediately before a religious reawakening which seem to be present today. First there is a growing realization of the depths of cultural decline and its bitter aftertaste. In our present age more we are starting to slowly but surely recover a sense of what is proper by hard experience. Cultural decadence is the fuel which powers revival and the more we experience the more people, in their pain and sense of being lost, look for something else. They may not experience this as a spiritual thing. It may be felt only as a utilitarian thing ie this life I'm leading, this path we're going is a dead end, but its fuel awaiting a spark.
Second there needs to be a weeding out in the Church, a time of pruning off dead wood so that the faithful can be unburdened. In our time some churches are doing this by themselves, that is they have so abandoned the faith they simply don't matter anymore. Sadly the prime example of this in our country is the Episcopal Church which is a media darling noted for its baptizing anything the cultural winds blow its way but frankly doesn't mean much to anyone outside of its walls and on its present course will be a non entity in a few decades. From those ashes, though, new and more dynamic forms of Anglicanism have emerged and will, if they remain faithful, have significant impact. Simply put the future, for all communions, belongs to the faithful. As part of this pruning a process of scandal and judgement is underway for the cleansing of bodies maintaining some form of faithfulness. The sex scandals of clergy, the financial misdeeds exposed, the lack of seriousness brought to light among the faithful may be, strangely enough, the hand of a loving God . God will not waste his purifying discpline on those who have no hope or whose hearts have been profoundly hardened but He will seek to cleanse the faithful, even if their faith is small and weak, to make them more faithful still. Such a time of cleansing seems underway.
Finally, there needs to be a spark, or a series of sparks to light the fire. For a while the situation after the horrible attacks of 9/11 brought some people to church, but that has largely waned. We've seen a move towards historic faith with the result of whole parishes and many seekers embracing Orthodoxy, and Catholicism, and other communions who have refused to compromise, but that's still a trickle in the larger picture. There is, outside of the electronic shouting of the media, a growing sense of loss, dislocation, and even disgust with our society, its leaders, and its institutions but it still is only in the simmering phase. Somewhere and somehow an event will occur or the weight of the darkness will reach such proportion or a heart of significance will turn towards God and the fire will be lit.
At this point we can only wait and pray because this is totally in God's hands. If we force it it will not be genuine, and as the old saying goes "God leads and the devil stampedes." However the scenario plays out we need to avoid the listlessness of simply waiting and watching without doing. This time, with all its darkness, is a time for us to grow strong, live lives of faith, and lift the world up in prayer. In God's good time, and it is God alone who knows the right time for all things, our commitment may have dramatic impact but if we must wait then at least we will be counted faithful. We cannot afford to be paralyzed like so many of the "end times" speculators who keep looking into the sky in fear while their neighbors perish anymore then we can be like the unfaithful servant who feared his master and hid his talent.
Still, there is something inside that says it may be close.
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