Rev. Danielle Elizabeth Tumminio, author of God and Harry Potter at Yale, has seen the new Muppet movie and wants to say thanks to Kermit and pals for lessons learned.
(Warning: big spoiler ahead.)
Many a pastor, many a Christian, knows this storyline all too well. In this era of shrinking resources, full-time pastors become part-time pastors; the rectory needs to be sold. The church closes.
Kermit, I loved your message to us all at the end of the film: It doesn’t matter that you lost your building. It doesn’t matter that you failed to raise the money.
The experience of becoming a community again created a foundation of relationships more stable than any building’s….
The Muppets teach us Christians that a building does not a church make.
Financial resources do not a church define.
Instead, a church is constructed upon the relationships between people who undertake a journey to love God and their neighbor together.
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Um, maybe I saw a different Muppets movie, but the one I saw was entirely about rescuing a building. The old theater signified their community exactly as a church building signifies its community. In the end, whether it mattered if the building was lost, it was not lost.
Well, Catherine, even though it’s not all about buildings, but about relationships between God and neighbor, realistically, families still do need a house to live in, and relatives have to have a place to meet.
If it’s not about the buildings, then why does ECUSA engage in nasty and expensive legal battles over buildings? Wait, don’t answer that — I already know your answer. But I find this an ironic post.
AMEN!!!