The church is both a blessing and a curse. It’s easy to both love her and to not like her so much. I think Dickens had Sunday in mind when he wrote, “These were the best of times and the worst of times.” Ghandi said of us, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” I get it, and it hurts, but at the end of the day I have to look in the mirror because I am the church, and so are you.
I was blessed to spend some time recently around a young person who was raised in the church but now chooses to not associate with Christians. This person told me that they had kind of a hate relationship with Christians but then they realized they are just people. At first that sounded encouraging but what they meant was the people in the church are no different than the mainstream un-Christian culture. Ouch! We are supposed to be salt, light, a city on a hill (Matthew 5:13 & 14) but after two decades this person says, we are all the same. Excuse me while I cry for a minute at this for the most part honest assessment.
They say there are three things Christians do that tick off non-Christians:
• Judge. I’m not a fan of the word and there are times that we do judge (John 13:35, Matthew 7:16), but the Rabbi told us to get the lumberyard out of our own eyes before we do any kind of major surgery to remove the speck of sawdust in the eyes of others (Matthew 7:5).
• Be Hypocritical. Not a fan of this word either but I know what people mean. It’s really not that we are hypocritical, we do believe what we say we believe, we just fail sometimes to do it. “We are a walking contradiction” is probably a better way to describe the church. We say we love, and we do in theory, practice is where we screw up. I would say to the one that looks at my failure and chooses to “judge” me to put the rock down (John 8:7) - at least I’m trying.
• We Stink at Friendship. #1 & #2 are probably the reason for #3. No one is good enough and I think I’m better than I really am (pride). What I’m saying is we are “perfect” people looking for other “perfect” people, it is then we will choose to give our hearts away to others. Anne of Green Gables was looking for a “bosom friend.” Can we talk? There are not very many “bosom” friends out there. Better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all. If you don’t believe me ask Jesus. I read that Jesus was a friend of sinners that He ate and partied with promiscuous people, drunks and people addicted to things (Matthew 11:19). He loved these people, but most walked away from the friendship. My non-Christian, worldly, big time sinner friends have taught me more about what friendship is than my Christian friends (with a few exceptions and you know who you are). Why is that?
Earlier I said I was trying. That’s really the problem. We have to stop trying and start trusting. I read somewhere that I can do #1 (stop being critical), #2 (stop living a contradictory life) and #3 (be a good friend to all) by trusting in Christ (Philippians 4:13). Let’s go!
He told me to tell you that.
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