Re-inventing Relationships?

Many a movie is about them. Almost every popular song has something to say about them. We pretend to have them on the Internet. Relationships, the deep and abiding ones are what we all hope to have.

What has happened, however, is that like Esau, we have sold our birthright for a bowl of soup. We are willing to be satisfied with a few lines on a social network site like Facebook or a TWEET from one of our 'friends.' We rarely have time to sit across a table and luxuriate over a home made meal because we have to get to some place where we will hang out with our 'friends' for a few hours.

Why is it that Rascal Flatts can sing songs about Mayberry and sitting on the front porch and we all go 'ahhhhhhh?' Could it be that we all wish for a time when people actually took the time to know one another and be known by one another? How do we put the Jeanie back in the bottle?

Maybe communities of faith could lead us back home...to a place where we are known and know others. Maybe, and only maybe, because it is far too easy for congregations to measure themselves based on numbers rather than friendships. Even in communities of faith we have lost the sense of what it means to be a 'sanctuary.'

I really don't know how to reclaim my birthright, because like all the rest of you I have drunk of the soup and it tasted good going down. The problem now is that I have acid stomach reflex and the pain is keeping me from doing anything about it.