Church

Listen: “Take Me to Church” by Hozier

The “church” as a Christian, religious institution has been on decline in America for seven straight decades and the decline has accelerated in the last two decades. Even though the institutional church is in decline (and I was someone who helped start new churches in America and around the world), I have noticed that “church” as a metaphor is still used for experiences which people love or value—things like sex, hanging out with friends, going to a recovery meeting, or experiencing something transcendent. I celebrate the way in which “church” as a metaphor is emerging in our culture. Some of the metaphors are actually important aspects of what “church” was originally intended to be.

Take Me to Church. On September 13, 2013, Irish singer-songwriter Hozier release a debut single entitled “Take Me to Church.” When Hozier wrote and recorded the song in the attic of his parent’s home in County Wicklow, he was a struggling musician. The song eventually achieved widespread global popularity topping the charts in over twelve countries. In the U.S., the song spent 23 consecutive weeks at the top of the Hot Rock Songs chart and tied with Imagine Dragons’ “Radioactive” as the longest running number-one song in that chart’s history at the time. The song was nominated for the Grammy Award Song of the Year and was certified six-times platinum.

The first time I heard this song, I was intrigued by its lyrics and use of religious imagery for sexual love. Hozier sings:

My church offers no absolutes

She tells me, “Worship in the bedroom”

The only Heaven I’ll be sent to

Is when I’m alone with you

Take me to church

I’ll worship like a dog at the shrine of your lies

I’ll tell you my sins and you can sharpen your knife

Offer me that deathless death

Good God, let me give you my life

Hozier describes falling in love—both the sense in which you wonderfully die to yourself and give of yourself to another in sexual love—like an act of worship in church. This is not the first time “church” has been used as a metaphor for sexual love. Christian mystics have interpreted the Old Testament book of “Song of Songs,” which celebrates sexual love, as a metaphor for a spiritual union with God. The Apostle Paul in Ephesians chapter five uses the union of marriage as a metaphor for the union of Christ and the church—Jesus is the groom and the church is the bride. Sex is sacred. It can be abused like all good gifts, but church should celebrate healthy sexual expression, instead of disseminating of shame-based sexual ethics.

My Church. In January of 2016 country music singer, Maren Morris, released the single “My Church,” co-written and co-produced by busbee. The song won Best Country Solo Performance and was nominated for a Grammy Award Best Country Song.

The song uses “church” as a metaphor for the transcendent experience Maren feels when she is driving down the road listening to her favorite country songs blasting on her Highway FM radio. Maren sings:

I’ve cussed on a Sunday

I’ve cheated and I’ve lied

I’ve fallen down from grace

A few too many times

But I find holy redemption

When I put this car in drive

Roll the windows down and turn up the dial

Can I get a hallelujah

Can I get an amen

Feels like the Holy Ghost running through ya

When I play the highway FM

I find my soul revival

Singing every single verse

Yeah I guess that’s my church

When Hank brings the sermon

And Cash leads the choir

It gets my cold cold heart burning

Hotter than a ring of fire

When this world gets heavy

And I need to find my escape

I just keep the wheels rolling, radio scrolling

‘Til my sins wash away

An experience with transcendence, the divine, or oneness with the universe can happen anywhere. Moses found holy ground at a burning bush. Jesus said that the location of worship wasn’t important, but the heart of the worshipper is: “For God is Spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:24; NLT). Any place can become a sacred space, like Parkville Nature Sanctuary, a Sigur Ros concert, or a ride in your car. Church is about experiencing the sacred and transcendent.

Starting Over. American rapper Macklemore has written about the struggles of addiction and recovery in his songs “Otherside” and “Starting Over.” In the song “Starting Over,” Macklemore writes about his relapse after three years of sobriety. Macklemore raps about attending a meeting and starting over:

Somebody stops me and says “Are you Macklemore?”

“Maybe this isn’t the place or time, I just wanted to say that

“If it wasn’t for ‘Otherside’ I wouldn’t have made it

I just looked down at the ground and say “Thank you”

She tells me she has 9 months and that she’s so grateful

Tears in her eyes lookin’ like she’s gonna cry, f***

I barely got forty-eight hours

There are over 100,000 AA groups around the world. That’s not counting the Twelve Step groups for other issues like narcotics, gambling, overeating, co-dependency, and sexual addiction. There are millions of people worldwide who have not felt comfortable going to church when they are in trouble. Many people view church as a “holier-than-thou, self-righteous, judgmental” place. When I was pastoring a church, I always encouraged people to come to church if they were struggling with a crisis or addiction. I had many people tell me that’s the last place they would go for fear they would be judged. However, people have found hope and healing in small meetings around the world which are based in rigorous honesty, humility, and vulnerability.

Why is this the case? People go to church for many different reasons. For some, it’s just a social club—full of fake smiles and plastic faces. No one shows up at an AA meeting (or any type of recovery meeting) with a fake smile. Their “ass is on fire” and they are close to losing everything. They are in desperate need of help, and they are looking for people who will love them, identify with them, and give them hope for a better life. The beginning point is utter brokenness, humility, honesty, and vulnerability. I am quite certain that this is the kind of “church” Jesus himself had in mind when he envisioned his church.

Crowded Table. In 2019, Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby, Maren Morris, and Amanda Shires formed The Highwoman. One of my favorite songs on their self-titled debut album is “Crowded Table.” It’s a song about loving, grace-based community:

You can hold my hand

When you need to let go

I can be your mountain

When you’re feeling valley-low

I can be your streetlight

Showing you the way home

You can hold my hand

When you need to let go

I want a house with a crowded table

And a place by the fire for everyone

Let us take on the world while we’re young and able

And bring us back together when the day is done

The door is always open

Your picture’s on my wall

Everyone’s a little broken

And everyone belongs

Yeah, everyone belongs

This is the kind of community in which Jesus himself participated and gathered. The ancient conception of “church” in both the Old (Hebrew word qahal) and New Testament (Greek word ecclesia) is not a building or an institution. It’s a gathering of people for the purpose of growing spiritually and supporting each other in loving, grace-based friendship. I think we all long for connection with our true self, connection with loving, grace-based community, and connection with something transcendent and greater than ourselves. This is “church” at its best.

Shalom

©realfredherron, 2022