On the Body

I recently wrote this in an email to a friend, confessing to him that I'm way too harsh on the church sometimes:


"I've been guilty recently of being too harsh and cynical of the church. Sometimes, I wonder if it hurts Jesus when I am so frustrated and sick of his church. It is HIS body after all. And he still loves her...with all her quirks, failures, imperfections and ugliness. It's easy to be critical of the church and it's problems, until I realize that one of her problems might just be me!

I want to look at broad brush strokes and sweeping trends in the culture of the American church and criticize her accordingly. But rarely want to do put my own life through such an analysis! As I look in the mirror I am mindful of how little I spend time in prayer and fasting and weeping on behalf of Christ's body, and am floored at the realization that this is precisely what I condemn the universal church for not doing.

One of the verses of Scripture that has provoked me deeply is Paul's mysterious words in Colossians 1:24. He writes, "Now I rejoice in what was suffered for you and I fill up in my flesh what is still lacking in regard to Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, which is the church".

Instead of throwing rocks through at a glass church that is feeble and frail and such an easy target of criticism, Paul realizes that his own life is not divorced from the life of the church. So instead of analyzing the gaps in the church as a whole, he looks at his own life and contributions. He concludes that his own blood, sweat and tears are somehow helping to fill in the gaps of what's still lacking in the body of Christ. Instead of handing out blows towards the church, he is willing to receive blows on her behalf, realizing that the weight of his own suffering is in some mysterious way being used by God to make the church what she should be.

Perhaps God is calling me to lay down the ax I have to grind and pick up the cross I'm called to bear. Paul seems to be responsible for Paul. The responsibility of the church at large, well, he leaves that responsibility to Jesus.

So, throughout my day today, I'll continue to wrestle with a church flooded with American consumerism, entertainment-based faith, organizational Christianity, people with deep pockets but shallow hearts, mediocrity, comfortability and self-obsession. Yes, this is the American church at her worst...and perhaps in some cases at her best. But, I don't want my legacy to be a cranky critic who played a good game of arm-chair theology about all that's wrong with the church today.

Rather, I would like to be like Paul. A man able to respond to a church still lacking, by believing that IF I give my all, Jesus will use my life towards the greater good of His Body...even if that doesn't happen in my own lifetime. So, pray that I don't become another cynic of the church. Rather, I want to go deeper down in my belief in God and my quest to listen to Him and be full of His Spirit. Today I am hoping that just as Jesus gave His body for my life, that I would be able to give my life for His Body".