Church Day ... or not!

Well, it is for many people.
Not so much for me lately.

If you've been following along at Out of My Hat for very long or if you know me personally, you also know that I have been struggling with the whole church thing over the past few years. I still feel strong in my faith and belief in God. I still consider myself a follower of Jesus, although I refrain from calling myself a Christian these days. And I'm not really anti-church. It's just that church and I don't seem to fit well anymore. 

I ran across a teaching of Jesus this past week that hit me differently than it has in the past. While I understood its meaning in the past, I now had a personal context for it and it was kind of a light bulb moment.
Recorded in Luke's Gospel we find Jesus teaching that no one puts new wine into old wine skins. If you put new wine into old skins, the new wine will cause the skins to burst and both will be lost.

Hmmm...
Is that what I've been doing, trying to fit my new understanding of God/Jesus/religion into my old religious practices?
Don't get me wrong. I still think it is important to gather together with like minded believers to share our experiences and encourage one another on our journeys through life, but the whole organized religion has such a manufactured feel to it that it just doesn't seem genuine anymore. 

In the time it's taken me to write this and finish my first cup of coffee the sun has risen above the eastern horizon and is now shining onto the deck and making typing on my Chromebook more difficult, the small murder of crows (5) has made its way through the yard and I can still hear them in the distance, the morning shadows are cast across the terrain of the rolling hills and will gradually disappear as the sun continues to rise, and the temperature will rise from this morning's 46 (8c) degrees to around 75 (24c) later in the day. 
This quiet connection to nature is also my connection to its Creator. It's my connection to God. 
There are no people here. My only connection to others is through sharing this moment via writing this simple blog. It is kind of sad that I don't feel the same kind of connection to God through people, but the little bluebird chirping at me from the top of my young blackberry plant seems to be telling me that it's okay.

Maybe it's more difficult going from preacher to you don't need church than it is for others. I don't know.
Maybe there is no place for me in the old skin of church and religion.
Finding (or making) a new wine skin seems to be more of a challenge than I was expecting. 
It's too bad Luke didn't share that part of Jesus' teaching in the same passage. 

Whether or not you go to church today -- I hope that you find a connection to the Creator, to God. You may find it through other people, or maybe in a quiet moment of thought and meditation, but I hope you find it. Our connection to creation and to our Creator is our connection to each other. 
E pluribus unum
Out of many, we are one.

John