Bear With Me: Grace in Community

At a congregational meeting recently two of my fellow congregants casually threw out a phrase to which, I'm sure, they aren't strongly attached theologically, but which, at least in part, stands as a strong foundation of their ethics of fellowship. In both cases it was a part of a statement that went something like this, "but if they don't believe that X, then they aren't the kind of person I want to hang out with."

If we believe that the church universal is a spiritual construct of a resurrected and sovereign Jesus Christ, and if we believe that it stands as a place for redemptive and encouraging community and service, and if we believe that membership is open to all who are open to the invitation of his good news, then, let me submit that Church has nothing to do with which sort of people we wish to spend our time.

In fact it may be that in doing some of the things the church is asked to do: Bearing each other's burdens, Instructing, Correcting, Deepening Faith, Encouraging, etc. that we may have to "bear with" each other in the other sense of that phrase, because the gravest sinners do not come to God cured just as the sickest people do not come to the hospital cured. The Body of Christ on this unperfected planet will always be a messy, uncomfortable, ball of tangled and torn humanity, perhaps soothed and aided by God's good Grace and Providence, but not yet fully perfected.

If we want to be with people we want to "hang out with" I'd submit that the church is the last place to look. If we want to hang out with people who God has placed into our path to be a part of our continuing work of salvation (both for them and for us) then we could do worse than to dive into the uncomfortable and difficult reality that many of the people with whom we attempt to fellowship will only become our truest brothers and sisters because of the fact that in our natural state we wouldn't be willing to invest in the suffering that our encounter with them will afford us. So, in my opinion, the true Church is not a social club -- it is more like a 12 step program -- You come as you are, and so do I. Awkward pause. Ewwww. OK, let's do this. Kyrie Eleison!