WOULDN'T IT BE NICE

I’ve heard it from many different quarters lately- “The most important thing the church can do for the world is to be the church.”

Could it be that simple?

No, really. Could it?

Does the church only need to live what it claims to be- an alternative society, the earthly manifestation of the life of God, a different way of being human, a foretaste of heaven, the glorious renewed image of a fiery yet tender Conquering lamb, the very body of Christ?

Lot’s of cool sounding stuff, there. Makes me want to jump right in. I want to be fiery and glorious and …a heavenly foretaste, but what does it mean…really, practically, and is it enough?

When the life of the Trinity intersected our world, it ended up on a cross; and it continues to turn over the sod of Adam’s creation with a plow that’s distinctly cross shaped.

My wiser brother N.T. Wright said that God found the pain and the guilt of the world, stooped underneath it, lifted it up and carried it himself.

I've been told that there's nothing in that statement but rhetorical flourish. It has no meat or content. It's like saying "all the world needs is Jeeessssusss", but it does have meaning. It means that God found the hurting and the guilty and he behaved as if their misery and corruption were his responsibility. Though totally innocent, he responded as if these things were his doing- his own fault.

In a fallen world, that’s what the life of God looks like. It's "fiery' with a twist. "Heavenly foretaste" with a bitter tang.

But wouldn’t a society of people committed to living that out daily be an anomaly in our world- a strange and wondrous beacon and hope?

Amidst all the self-serving and self-glorifying pettiness of our lives, the body of Christ marks off, like a bubble in an expanse of water, a different reality. Out there it’s wet. In here it’s dry.

Right?

Isn’t that your experience with the church?

The most important thing the church can do for the world is to be the church.

The difference doesn’t lie in our weapons, though they do differ. It’s not that we do with bibles and prayers what the world does with bombs and mines. That’s not being a new creature; that’s being better armed.

The real difference is in our aim. We don’t seek to glorify ourselves by pointing out the failures of others, rather we wish to throw ourselves away so that the other can experience the life they were meant to live. The call to follow Christ is a call to be used up for our enemies' sake. We find our lives by loosing them.

Right?

The most important thing the church can do for the world is to be the church.

Is it enough for me to tell the young girl that abortion is not an option- that she must carry the unwanted child for the rest of her life? Is it enough to point out her “corruption” and lack of self control? Are we being the church then?

Or do we need to be the place where she is enabled to do the right thing, the hands from which God’s forgiveness is offered, an encouraging symphony of transparent “me, too”, and honest companions in a messy life of compromise and shortcomings?

“I can’t afford the baby.”

“We can,” Christ answers back.

“No one will love me, if they know”

“We do,” Christ answers back through an embrace.

“The pain and guilt are too much”

“But there not yours, there ours,” Christ smiles.

Would people want to be part of something like that? Would such a place make a difference in the world by simply giving the world another way of being the world?

Wouldn’t it be nice to know?