Rev. Danielle Elizabeth Tumminio, author of God and Harry Potter at Yale, has seen the new Muppet movie and wants to say thanks to Kermit and pals for lessons learned.
(Warning: big spoiler ahead.)
Many a pastor, many a Christian, knows this storyline all too well. In this era of shrinking resources, full-time pastors become part-time pastors; the rectory needs to be sold. The church closes.
Kermit, I loved your message to us all at the end of the film: It doesn’t matter that you lost your building. It doesn’t matter that you failed to raise the money.
The experience of becoming a community again created a foundation of relationships more stable than any building’s….
The Muppets teach us Christians that a building does not a church make.
Financial resources do not a church define.
Instead, a church is constructed upon the relationships between people who undertake a journey to love God and their neighbor together.