Friday, January 26, 2007

 

WE! Are The Gospel

David Wayne, Jollyblogger, started the New Year by quoting Dietrich Bonhoeffer and daring us to be sinners in 2007. He concludes his post this way:
Those words are good news for me! They also show a way forward in the midst of our fractured churches and other Christian fellowships - they remind us that our fellowship is not based on a shared holiness, rather on shared depravity and shared reception of grace.
I spend a lot of time on this blog reminding myself, and hopefully you, of the need to be self-sacrificing, confessional, and Christocentric in our approach to faith. And yet, David reminds me here powerfully, that if we are those things - WE BECOME THE GOSPEL.

What greater evidence is there to the good news of Jesus Christ than the evidence of our depraved, grace-blessed lives?

It is often sport in church to make fun of flubs from up front. I think they happen in every church and everybody gets s good giggle out of them afterwards. Depending on where you go it could be a Powerpoint malfunction, or a color-blind pastor naming the wrong color for a bulletin insert. I have seen churches that react to such giggles with horror and redouble their efforts to "make worship perfect." Then their are those churches that in humility laugh at themselves and in so doing evidence the grace of God.

There is something a little scary about "perfection" in church. It always makes me wonder what is really going on behind the scenes. That kind of image simply does not come without enormous effort - it is a construct, not a reflection of reality.

Reality is not that we are perfect but that we are far from it. Reality is not that we are made perfect, at least not yet, but that God loves us in spite of our imperfections. Reality is not that we do the right thing, but that we are forgiven when we do the wrong thing.

In reality there is fellowship and communion and grace -- The Body of Christ. Everything else is just acting.

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