It is common to critique local churches for their faithlessness. Yet when you think about it, many of these churches had similar characteristics to the biblical stories describing the Jewish people before them. We are left with several possibilities:
- God, who took a “No people” and transformed them into “God’s people,” also had a community who frequently lacked the ability to convey God’s message to the world. Then Jesus attempted to form the church community, but it also reflected the normal human characteristics of our world.
- Humans, Jewish, Christian, or others seem incapable to living according to God’s truth and therefore providing hope to our broken world.
- Like Peter who denied Jesus at a critical moment, James and John who played power games, Thomas who doubted, and all who ran away at a critical point in their faith journey, faith communities frequently demonstrate more worldly values than revealers of hope for humanity.
Ephesians 2:8-10 speaks of being saved by grace and not by works.
We speak of the Church God, through Christ, reconciling the world to Godself and that Christians are called to be ambassadors of reconciliation. If we look at the toxic poison of racism that tears our society apart, in what way can the church and its members be ambassadors of reconciliation?
If you look at the past 400 years and the slavery, bigotry, and prejudice that has despoiled not only our society but also our faith communities, it doesn’t provide much evidence of our faith calling us to be ambassadors of reconciliation.
When we speak of being saved by grace rather than works, too often people see grace as a sort of “Get out of jail free card.” Yet when you read about both the Jewish community in the Hebrew Scriptures and the early church in the New Testament, you discover something very different. Rather than seeing a group of humans miraculously being changed into a virtuous community, you discover an ordinary human community with all the normal strengths and weaknesses, experiencing a connection with the Divine that enables them to be a transforming presence in our world.
People who are part of a Christian community don’t suddenly become paragons of virtue. Two things are different about this community. First, on a regular basis, they gather together in a set of practices that offer the possibility of being touched by the eternal. Second, in the midst of that connection, they are offered the opportunity to confess their sins. Their sins are real, like those in the rest of the world, but by being touched by the eternal they are liberated in a manner that enables them to learn from rather than be bound by their sins. Recall the Alcoholics Anonymous experience. For a person to be liberated from the entrapment of Alcohol, s/he must first acknowledge and own their problem—My name is…and I am an alcoholic.” But it doesn’t stop there. The next step is to also acknowledge that by themselves, they are powerless to change. They need a higher power, both in their community and God to effect the change. But when they both confess and connect with the powers beyond themselves, they cannot only begin to live a healthier life, but they can also become part of the healing community that can help others.