This week one of our required readings was "The Garden of Love" by William Blake. In this poem, Blake is describing a church scene that he has come across. This church is built on land where children used to roam free and play happily. The doors to the church were shut and above them was the phrase "Thou shalt not." He noticed that where there should be flowers, there were graves, and his joys and desires were "binding with briars."
This poem is a great piece about the church and how cold and legalistic the church can be. Many people feel this way even today and that is not how the church was meant to be, both to those inside and to outsiders looking in. God did not intend for the church to exclude or push away people, but to invite all to dine at the Lord's supper. God did not intend for the church to be constitutionalized and made into one long list of rules, but to be a community of people supporting one another in their walk of faith. God did not intend for anyone to give up freedom to follow Him, but to find freedom through living in Him.
Blake's writing is a timeless idea. The church has never understood God's true desires because they didn't desire Him with surrendered hearts. The more the church aligns itself with God's heart and way of life, the less that people like William Blake will feel uninvited and unloved by the church.
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