Pain and Promise in the Church

Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many… Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 1 Corinthians 12:14, 27

Dear Friends in Christ,

Have you ever encountered flaws in the church? If you haven’t, then you haven’t had much contact with the church. The church is the body of Christ, on whom the Holy Spirit is poured to receive, embody and share God’s grace. And the church is also human, full of sinners for whom Christ died (sinners like you and me). Does the church have any importance beyond a voluntary association? Why do we have to endure the disappointments of Christian life together?

We are so used to a culture that seeks the best deal for “me,” that thrives off of competition in an economy of demands for customer satisfaction, yielding, in theory, excellence. My years in the business world leave me often impatient with companies that seem to care nothing for excellence. And yet, these philosophies leave the highest good as “my” individual customer satisfaction, and the expected return (to the self) of my investment. What if this were backward to God’s economy?

What if the excellence we pushed for in church was for the glorification of a God who redeems and transforms broken people? What if we expected church to be a place where each of us could give grace and mercy toward others, and in so doing, help to form whole Christian persons and a healthy Christian community? Someone once said that church is not a club for saints, but a hospital for sinners. A church of perfect people would have no room for me or you. So the church will fail us and frustrate us and disappoint our customer expectations. But if we thought of the church less like customers and more like brothers and sisters, family not of our choice but of God’s creation, then we might look for ways in which God is forming and shaping us together far better than we each might be on our own.

Tish Harrison Warren, who wrote “Liturgy of the Ordinary,” the book most of us are studying this Lent, writes of the pain and promise of being Christians together. God calls us together. Yes, that means God calls individuals, but God also calls us to be a people in relationship. Even the ancient desert monks who sought solitude were soon followed by others seeking their company. We call this Christian community: the church.

God calls us into relationship with each other so that we might share his grace and mercy with each other, and so that we might learn renewal and restoration through the pain and promise of real human relationships. We each bring our own brokenness; we each seek greater wholeness; we each rub against each other in ways that challenge and strengthen each other, both with blessings, and in the process of confession, repentance, forgiveness, amendment of life, and reconciliation.

The church offers not customer satisfaction, but rather transformation in relationship with God and each other in Christ. That is the pain and promise of God’s call to us to be the church together.

How has God worked for good in your life through the broken and flawed life together of the church?

Yours in Christ,

-Tom