No...I didn't say that St. Augustine was on something, I said that he was on to something. Anyway, at the ministry conference I recently attended in Nashville, I had the privilege of taking in a great seminar with Tony Campolo. In it he used a quote from St. Augustine which said, "The Church is a whore, and she is my mother."
I have a tendency to be a little skeptical of the Church and, yes, negative about the Church at times. I think that it is a natural part of being a minister. I don't know of many ministers that aren't cynical about the Church because we've all experienced the same stuff. We've heard guys who call themselves "leaders" suggest and say things in meetings that aren't even remotely biblical. We've seen the Church sell out to the very things that Jesus couldn't stand. We've been verbally attacked by people who don't think we have feelings. We've heard people call themselves by the name of Jesus and then turn around and spit on his memory by the things they do and say. We have every right to be cynical.
However, this quote has haunted me since I heard it. I can't get it out of my head. Every time I start griping about the Church, this quote pops into my head in an almost phantasmic way. It whispers to me things like, "The Church has been worse off than it is now." "You may be mad at the Church, but that's the body of Christ you're mad at." I can't shake it.
This quote, to me, basically means that the Church is always going to be a mess because it is made of fallible human beings. Even if I demanded its perfection, which I (subconsciously) do at times, I'm just as messy as everyone else. I certainly don't have it all together. This means that I injure Christ by what I do just as much as other people. I seem to remember Jesus saying something like, "Why worry about the speck in someone else's eye, when you have a plank in your own?"
The fact is that the Church is a whore. The Church continually runs after other lovers that can't give what our bridegroom can give to us. However, this whore is my mother, and it is my duty to love her as Jesus loves her.
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8 comments:
the difference between you and most people who are a mess is that you at least recognize that there is a problem that needs fixing. the average church-goer doesn't even realize that the church is a mess.
"The good usually comes from being around people I love."
That's church. Not the building, the massive egotistical power structure, the boards, the ministers, the music, the band, or the budgets.
Being around people you love who love Jesus like you do. That's church and that's why it's lasted 2000 years through the crusades, the inquisition, and all of the other atrocities, both big and small, that have been committed in the name of Jesus.
changed my profile name again. how do you like it?
you can only be quintana if i can be o'brian. we're the only ones who are going to get that joke.
most parts of "church" make me want to wretch as well. but, i do agree with g.o.b. that the people is what makes church worth it. i don't know how people survive without being in a group of loving people.
it bothers me when churches try and force relationships and intimacy and community. i think you can create an atmosphere for community to take place, but you can't make it happen. most small group programs end up being this very thing. the ones that work the best are ones that evolve out of already established relationships. it's not that intimacy can't happen in other groups, it's just that it seems pretty rare. it ends up being a bible study and nothing more, not an actual community of people dedicated to loving and nurturing each other.
good thoughts. it's unfortunate that "church people" ruin church and ruin christianity with their legalism and snobbery. what's so hard is that you and i and everyone else are called to love them too, knowing full well that God loves them more than we ever could. that's the hardest part for me sometimes because they have no concept of God's love because if they did they wouldn't act like they do.
maybe if i understood God's love i wouldn't act like I DO.
our hatred toward the church or people in the church puts us in the same boat as those we despise. dietrich bonhoeffer said,
"The man who despises another will never be able to make anything out of him. Nothing that we despise in the other man is entirely absent from ourselves."
i think that pretty much says it all. we're all pharisees in some way. we're all hypocrites in some way.
when individuals take stands against the establishment, particularly the religious establishment, they get nailed to crosses, thrown to the animals, or burned at the stake.
you're right though, all sarcasm aside, it's up to individuals and groups of individuals trying to live in community together to stand up for something other than themselves and make the kingdom a reality instead of some idealogical concept that has no hope of existing.
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