BLOG 1/10/16. THE CHURCH: A COLONY OF “MOST MISERABLE OFFENDERS”
One needs a hearty sense of humor to engage in Christ’s church. In my last blog (1/6/16) I spelled out my own algorithm of the four essential and very clear characteristics for those colonies of God’s New Creation in Christ, which we designate as the church. I noted that the church is a people ‘called out’ by Jesus Christ: 1) to be those absolutely persuaded and passionate adoring about who Jesus is, what he has done, and what he has taught us we are to be and do, i.e. a Christ-o-centric community; 2) a community/colony which demonstrates in its lifestyle/praxis what that New Creation looks like in behavior; 3) a community/colony which demonstrates God’s New Creation in Christ in its reconciling, loving relationships with each other and with one’s neighbors—even enemies, i.e. “By this shall men know that you are my disciples in that you love one another;” and 4) it is that community/colony that the “missionary arm of the Holy Trinity,” i.e. that people who are contagious with Christ’s mission to make the message of God’s redeeming love for his world to be known into the corners of the human community—a community in which all are engaged in this passion of Christ to show his love to this present world.
I’ll stand by all of those evidences of the church’s authenticity. I think they are unimpeachable necessities, and when any one of them is absent, somehow the community is less than it is intended to be. It is never perfect, but always n formation—provisionally God’s New Creation. But this is where the sense of humor is necessary. Those four components sound good and Biblical, … but then you encounter the real, existential communities that call themselves the church, … and right away you are faced with the crazy, diverse, often bewildering array of personalities that are so very human. It is one thing to spell out what Christ’s intent/purpose is for the church, his sine qua non characteristics, … but something quite other when one comes to inhabit one of these communities. One finds both those wonderful individual expressions of these characteristics, gifted persons, caring, warm exemplary folk … but one also finds all of those fractured, or chronically depressed, or self-important, or petty ‘church-i-fied’ folk seeking to impress others with their religiosity, hyper-spiritual, demanding, small-minded… ‘you name it’ kind of folk often in the same colony.
The wonderful thing is that the first confession that one makes when coming into Christ’s family is that we are real sinners, … real sinners, real needy guilty, broken people. We sing: “Come ye sinners, poor and wretched … come to Jesus.” The apostle writes that if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. That confession is so liberating. And here is where I love the Anglican prayer of confession that states it so colorfully, and disarmingly: “We have done those things we ought not to have done and left undone those things we ought to have done. There is no health in us, we are most miserable offenders,” (or something like that!). Boy, oh boy, does that nail it.
And the irony is that the closer we get to the glory and transcendence of God in Christ, the more conscious we are of that all of that. Christ’s disciples are questing for true humanity, for their conformity to the divine nature. This confession sets us free to know who we really are and to allow others to get close. It creates a transparency and a humility that is such a beautiful part of what the church is called to be. If one is too proud of one’s religiosity to admit that one is a “most miserable offender” then that person has missed something of the essence of God’s New Creation. Jesus came to set us free, and our confession of our status as sinner is at the threshold.
One does, in fact, need a great sense of humor, and an uninhibited sense of personal honesty and transparency to be engaged with Christ’s church. But such is the sweet fragrance of Christ, and glorious freedom that such communities/colonies incarnate in this present scene.
