Why are all my favorite TV shows, the ones with the most theological depth, the ones that can't be shown in church. I once made this mistake of renting what I remembered to be a mild horror film for a Halloween church youth gathering. As the film played out I died a thousand deaths experiencing the horror of the movies strong language. Fortunately my congregation was of a forgiving sort and I survived the mistake to preach another day.

I recently spotted the first season of Dead Like Me at Wal-Mart selling for $10. Talk about your hidden treasures of great worth buried in a field. The first season of Dead Like Me is probably my all time favorite TV series. The series is about an 18-year old girl who has pretty much dropped out of life because she believes no matter if your good or bad you still end up losing. On her lunch break, at the first day of a dead end job, she is killed by a toilet falling from a Russian space ship. She learns to her dismay that, because she was not bad enough to go to Hell, or good enough to get into to Heaven, she must become a Grim Reaper and help recently dead folks make an easy transition to the afterlife. This story line opens the door for a lot of humor, some of it very unchruchlike and crude, and some very sharp observations about the human condition.

But I could never show it in a church without offending a lot of folks. Even though most of those folks probably watch a lot worse at home. I know I do.

Which kind of gets me thinking about the condition of church going people in our culture. We are doing better than the 1950s when all the good folks knew how to dress and act, especially in church, but we are still very uninformed about what church really is. A lot of people seem to come to church on Sunday mornings hoping to praise their ways right out of their everyday lives. But if we stop to think about it, isn't the way we live our everyday lives our real church?

Would you want to live your whole life the way we do church? I wouldn't. Trying to stay awake on Sunday mornings, singing song which we only know about half of anyway, and listening to some poor pastor with more responsibility than they have time to think about, let alone accomplish, isn't my idea of much of a life. Now I know all worship services aren't like that, and I'm not saying even the ones that are have no value, I'm just suggesting that church, like our lives, ought to be more than just that.

Surely God is the Lord of church and life. I doubt that the Creator offends as easily as most of us do. If we could bring more of our lives into the church, than maybe more of our church would enrich our lives. And if that means experiencing some things in church that make our goodie goodie selves uncomfortable at times. Would be worth the price to me. Certainly couldn't be more stressful than hearing some of the pastors sermon jokes.

Once the Church held a stronghold over American culture. We controlled television and the movies through ethical censorship. Society has long since escaped our grasp and today we fear being perverted by it. Which is a real problem. But we also have the problem of meeting are faith with where we really lives our lives.

Jesus walked the streets and participated in social situations that enraged some religious leaders of his time. But he understood that God is about people not ethical codes. Jesus found a way to mix his faith with everyday life of the average people of his times. Can we say the same?