Sherlock Holmes And The Institutional Church

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Last night I watched the 2015 movie, Mr Holmes. It's a beautiful film which recounts the poignant story of the last years of the life of the world-famous (fictional) detective, Sherlock Holmes. At the age of 93, with his memory failing, he is desperately trying to remember the details of his last case. As the story unfolds, we learn that it was this case which caused him to retire from public life, and withdraw from London to settle in a quiet village on the Sussex coast, where he tends the bees in his apiary.

Eventually, it becomes clear that his handling of that final investigation resulted in the suicide of his client's wife, and he is driven to acknowledge that his intellectual genius is not enough for life. For all his amazing powers of observation and his near miraculous deductive reasoning, he lacks compassion - connection with the humanity of the lives around him.

But it is only when he faces the possible loss of his housekeeper's son - a young boy with whom he has formed a deep bond - that his life finally comes into focus for him and he reaches out to another human soul.

As I reflected on the way the film exposed the incapacity of Holmes' emotional life, I saw a parallel with my experience of the institutional church. Where the detective had his intellect and reasoning, the institution had its cold morality and ceaseless performance. Holmes' raison d'être was solving mysteries in life, but he failed to ever experience the mystery of life. The church's driving passion of compliance and rule-keeping was seen as proof of devotion to God, yet it failed to comprehend the mystical, transformation wrought by the Spirit of God.

Both were concerned with a dispassionate observation of human life - the way things presented to the eye - while maintaining a safe distance from the messy reality of the human heart. Both held at bay any danger of intimate connection or the exposure of their own vulnerability.

And in doing so, both have damaged the lives of those around them - sometimes leading to the death, whether physical or metaphorical, of those lives. For Holmes, the crisis leads to an acknowledgement of his 'sins' and failings. He 'confesses' to his housekeeper:

"There was a woman, once. I knew her less than a day. A quarter of an hour's conversation. She needed my help. She needed so desperately to be understood by someone... Me. So, I laid out the particulars of her case as I saw them... To her satisfaction, I thought. I watched her walk away. And within hours she'd ended her life. By identifying the cause of her despair with such clarity, I'd given her carte blanche to do just as she intended. I should've done whatever it took to save her. Lie to her, make up a story. Take her by the hand and hold her as she wept, and said, "Come live with me. "Let us be alone together." But I was fearful. Selfish. She's the reason I came here to my bees, so that I couldn't harm anyone ever again."

While it was not his intention to harm this woman, his choice to remain detached and dispassionate - to stick to "the facts" - nevertheless contributed to her despair-driven death. Likewise, the church has been culpable in harming countless souls who were offered "the truth" instead of love and connection in the midst of their desperation.

But unlike the church that I have encountered, Holmes does own his failure. He does care that he simply watched this woman walk away to her death. He does acknowledge that his "help" was worthless in the face of her distress. He does, in fact, repent.

The illustrious Sherlock Holmes humbles himself and acknowledges that facts, even when "true", will never meet the very real need for compassion and care in our lives. His eyes are opened to a greater necessity than "the truth" in life, and he allows this understanding to change him. 

In the closing scene, we glimpse his developing relationship with one who he had previously viewed as simply an employee. He has finally started to see the human behind the role; comprehending her capacity to feel and connect, despite the loss and pain she has known. We also witness his homage to the ghosts of his past - people with whom he failed to connect, but whose unacknowledged (and unreciprocated) love and care for him were vital to his well-being. And he finally recognises and honours the worth of their imperfect, irrational love for him.

And as I ponder this transformation in the great detective, I can't help but wonder if the 'church' will ever use a crisis in its own life to such good effect.

Church as Business

In The Power of Intimacy I shared a little of our group's experience when we were led to make the pursuit of relationship with God and each other our greatest priority. We discovered how compelling a reality it is to live free from the need to pretend or perform, and how liberating it is to be real with each other.

Sadly, the things we were learning and encountering in that context stood in increasingly stark contrast to the direction the elders meetings were taking. In April, 2012 this is what I wrote to my fellow elders:

In recent times, there have been some things happening which I believe are warning signs to us that we are not journeying together well, or indeed the way God has called us to. We talk about operating through relationship, but we seem to have devolved to a corporate business model. We meet once a fortnight to "do business" and then spend the time in between having very little to do with each other, except for the email traffic doing more "business". The exception to this is that [M] and I meet every Wednesday night to hang out, share ourselves, pray and have intimate relationship with each other. This makes a world of difference and I believe that God is revealing to us that this is the much more substantial and significant "business" to be engaged in...

As you know, a few weeks ago we found ourselves in a sharp disagreement which ended with us misunderstanding and judging each other. I believe that was a direct result of the lack of relational intimacy between us and that unless we change the way we do business, we run the danger of tearing ourselves apart and destroying the amazing work that God has established in and through us. We talked about establishing some guidelines or principles for future reference, but no amount of making rules will compensate for a lack of intimate relationship - knowing and being known. I believe we desperately need to spend (regular and frequent) time with each other and the Father, sharing our hopes, struggles, dreams and victories. Meeting without agenda. Love covers a multitude of sins, and intimacy generates both understanding and grace in relationship.

My attempts to engage were met with outright refusal. I was politely thanked for my "thoughts on the operation of the elders" and then dismissed. But I can't help but be struck by how prophetic my words actually were!

Since that time, I have spent a great deal of time reading, studying and pondering. And I have come to the realisation that the way we 'do church' is broken. It actually sets us up to hurt each other.

When you run church like a business, you have to protect your 'product' at all costs. So you impose hierarchy, you demand conformity, you exercise control.

And the advertising executives sell the product using soft-focus images of healing, unconditional love, safety, acceptance, community… but the business repeatedly fails to deliver.

People end up damaged and disillusioned and they want their money back. But there are no refunds available.

As one particular CEO er… pastor said, "You either get on the bus, or you get run over by the bus. Those are the options."

Do you really think this is what Jesus had in mind when he said he would build his church!?

The Power of Intimacy

Back in 2007 my then church had just repeated it's history of damaging one another over leadership issues (mentioned in Part 1 of my story), and this time it had ended with the mass resignation of the entire leadership team (pastor and elders).

Those who remained knew we needed to step up and bring what we had to the table. If we wanted the church to keep going, we had to be an active participant.

Even though the circumstances which led us to this place were extremely unhappy, there was a real excitement in me because it felt like God was giving us a chance to explore 'doing church' as described in his written word.

Well, my brothers and sisters, let’s summarize. When you meet together, one will sing, another will teach, another will tell some special revelation God has given, one will speak in tongues, and another will interpret what is said. But everything that is done must strengthen all of you. 1Cor 14:26 NLT

I looked at what I had to offer and it didn't take me long to realise that everything I'd done in the past was centred around prayer. That was my passion - and so I started a prayer gathering. The only thing I insisted on was that there be no rules or schedules. We were to gather with no other agenda than to meet with God.

Over time, a small core group of regular attendees developed. As we pressed in, we started to learn the importance of being truly honest and open with each other before God. It seemed that this led us into places of great intimacy with him. He would clearly direct us as we learned to sit and wait on him. Sometimes this meant waiting in silence, learning to enjoy just being with him, and learning to listen and be patient.

We found that God challenged many of our understandings, like learning to worship in new and varied ways (none of which involved music!).

Sometimes I felt like Mary, sitting at Jesus's feet. Overwhelmed by his presence but never wanting to leave.

It is hard to articulate all that we experienced, but the more transparent we became with each other, the more God seemed to guide and speak to us. Not that we were always in agreement or thought and acted alike, but we had such a genuine love for each other that it never became an issue.

Relationship was our priority and we allowed nothing to threaten that.

There is incredible power and authority in the loving unity of the children of God. Throughout the history of the church, the enemy has used dissension, discord and division to stifle the effectiveness of God's people. No wonder Christ's prayer was that we would be one just as he and the Father are one!

Living openly with others - knowing and being known - brings extraordinary freedom.

I remember one night, meditating on the story of Adam and Eve walking with God in intimate relationship and I asked God what it would mean to 'reclaim Eden'. The answer that came to me was simple - "Learn to walk naked and unashamed."

To me, this spoke of the freedom of being who we are, no masks, nothing hidden, just 'nakedly' ourselves - yet fully forgiven and wholly righteous before our God. Accepted. Loved.

Living free from the fear that being known means being rejected.

Living free from the pretence, the pose, the performance.

Living in intimacy with our God and each other. Knowing and reflecting his love. Unashamed.

I firmly believe that the journey we took in our little group is a reflection of Kingdom life as we are called to live it. And I believe that this is part of being the church - being relational with all and learning to live in intimacy and be unafraid.