David Wayne (aka Jollyblogger) has a post citing Marriage statistics.  The old saw the last few years is that the divorce rate from evangelicals is roughly equal to (and sometimes worse than) the national average.  This new post states that instead of just counting those that cite a ‘born again’ experience as proof of their evangelical creds, it also counts those that attend church regularly.  When that additional data point is added to the equation, the sturdiness of the evangelical marriage stands up a bit better than the national average.

While I think trying to use statistics to prove a faithful life is somewhat of a folly, the point I’d like to ponder is a long those same lines.  The power of attending church as a factor in persevering in a life in Christ.  My class this last Sunday we talked about Christ as being the light of the world, the light that casts our darkness.  In my Thursday class we talked about science and the shakiness of special and general revelation as we see through the glass darkly.  In all the exposure of regular attendance in church seems to have a mystical effect on those that express a faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.  It isn’t something that we can test for, or monitor, it is something we can see if we look close enough.

The darkness will try to hide it in the shadows, but faith in Christ isn’t a faith that occurs in solitude.  It is  faith that grows in community, with a body of other believers.  It is a faith that grows with the study of the Word of God, and that requires the body of Christ to and the Holy Spirit as guides along our course.  The statistic regarding lower divorce rates of evangelical, church attending Christians is lower, because their marriage includes Christ in that union.  The wheels come off when one starts to think that the marriage can be whole apart from Christ.  The relationship is held together by the working of Christ.

I don’t want to discount faithful people that are devoted to Christ yet still see their marriages fall into divorce.  There is healing for people hurt in that tragedy.  I have faith that Christ even works towards the good in that situation as he does with a couple that struggles in a marriage that includes weekly worship in a church.  The magic isn’t in the building, it isn’t in the work, it is in the understanding that where two or more are together, Christ is present.  The faithful obedience of people that fall almost daily, but are willing to walk inside the door and confess those failings, are more able to accept the failings of themselves, and also of their spouse.  The humilty that comes with a life in servanthood to Christ is required in a covenant of holy matrimony, because it can freely accept the fallenness of a partner, because we acknowledge our own fallen state, and the light that brings us out of the darkness.

Marantha.