| Qoheleth and the Quester (An Ecclesiastical Odyssey), The End of the Quest (or, What It's All About) |
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| Written by Bert Montgomery | |||
| Monday, 24 May 2010 12:28 | |||
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-------- I shower, dress, and go to the kitchen for some milk and pastries. I turn and find Jim sitting quietly at my table. “Holy Hildegard! Aren’t you going to offer me some milk and pastries?” I get milk and pastries for Jim and join him at the table. “Jim, I'm overwhelmed with despair. Everything you have shown me indicates that history is redundant; that it really does repeat itself; that the same things really do happen over and over again – and worse, even in Church history! I’ve lost any purpose, any meaning. I’ve lost all hope for the Church.” My brain hurts; I sit at the table staring at my breakfast. “Quester,” Jim spoke, “What did you learn from Marx, Weber, and Mills?” “I learned that the continuing struggle for power – economic, religious, whatever – pushes history along.” “Good. Keep working with this, Quester. How does this fit with Church history?” “Power struggles, not faith, certainly seem to be the driving force throughout Church history.” “Keep going.” “The cyclical-power-struggle continues – any time one group has power, there is a resistance always present. Whether it's the Thirty Years' War in the Seventeenth Century, or the continuing fighting between Catholics and Protestants in Ireland, or – in a less physically violent manner, thank goodness – Baptists battling each other here in America. Why should we be surprised?” “Yes! Yes! Why are we surprised, indeed! Keep going, keep going!” prods Jim, puffing on his pipe. “Could it be that with each new Protestant group the cycle of power continues turning, externally and internally? And the cycle of power continues turning even within the Catholic Church?” “This is not my quest. What do you think?” “I think that even within the walls of religion, leaders tend to exploit and exclude people, who grow weary and frustrated and eventually revolt in some way or another.” “And what does this tell you about Church history?” “I guess that it is redundant; that it keeps repeating itself; that the same patterns just keep occurring over and over again.” Jim leans back, puffs lazily on his pipe, and a satisfied grin stretches across his face. “But, Jim! This leaves me hopeless and without purpose! Without meaning! Don't leave me like this! WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT?!” Jim leans forward, lays his pipe on the table, and looks deeply into my eyes. “Vanity of vanities!” says Jim, “It’s all meaningless! Even the Church is full of vanity. There's nothing lasting to anything – it's all smoke. The conflicts, strife, divisions and 'reformations' of the Church are a never-ending cycle. What has been is what will be, and what has been done is what will be done; and there is nothing new under the sun. “So, here is the end of the matter, the end to your quest, the last and final word: Fear God and do what God tells you. That's it, plain and simple. Eventually God will bring all this other hubristic nonsense into judgment.” Jim, the one called 'Qoheleth', vanishes. I sit at the table for a moment, say a short prayer, and with a resigned sigh get up and begin packing for the annual assembly of Cooperative Baptists (who, until about twenty years ago, were Southern Baptists) . . . Author's notes: Various modern translations of Ecclesiastes were paraphrased and merged together to help with this story; hopefully none of them were hurt in the process. Photo Credit (c) 2010, by Bert Montgomery Read previous articles in this series: III – Rioting for Jesus IV – Thy Will (to Power) Be Done V – Laity of the World, Unite!
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Introduction: The following is PART SIX – the conclusion – of our six-part serial. To read the first five installments, follow the links at the end of this story. 
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