What is the Church? How can we make her better?
Last night we continued our series in our Foundations class at Foothills on The Church . We had a great time studying some of the metaphors for the Church in the New Testament, like: the body of Christ (Eph. 1:22-23 ) with Christ as our Head, the flock of God (John 10 ) with Jesus being our Good Shepherd, the family (household) of God, the building of God and temple of the Holy Spirit, and the bride of Christ (2 Cor. 11:2 ; Eph. 5:25-33 ).
As we do each week, I stated our over-arching goal for the lesson:
That we learn to know, love and enjoy God more than we know, love and enjoy anything or anyone else, and that we worship Him as His Church
Our two objectives were to:
- Deepen our love for and commitment to the Church, and
- Let go of false pictures and expectations of the Church
Last time we looked at the nature of the Church and I pulled in a few common slogans. Perhaps you’ve heard them before:
"Have it your way" (Burger King)
"You can do it; we can help" (Home Depot)
We discussed that we need to repent of our consumerism when it comes to the local church, because it is not about us (!).
So I proposed a better motto/slogan by which we see ourselves:
“WE can do it, you can help”
‘We’ being the church, and ‘you’ being individual believers. Or if we want to keep with the corporate slogans, perhaps this one works:
"Let’s build something together" (Lowe’s)
In this I’m not trying to pit one company as better than the other (i.e., while I like Lowe’s slogan more, the customer service there is inferior to Home Depot, in my humble opinion).
Enough of the corporate nonsense, and let’s talk about how we experience our identity corporately . Much could be said here about our identity and no less than five dozen words and metaphors are used by God to describe who we are in Christ (e.g. chosen, saints, faithful, beloved, redeemed people, royal priesthood, a holy nation, light, salt, etc.). As I mentioned above, last night we considered five metaphors:
- The Body of Christ
- The flock of God
- The family (household) of God
- The building of God
- The bride of Christ
I love each one of these illustrative metaphors, and they spring forth off the page in full-color, 3-dimensions. It seemed like all my students (which are all older than me by the way) delved into this with full expression of faith. We talked through what it means to forgive, and to seek the betterment of others, to sacrifice and be joined to Christ and one another. How they ideal desriptions of the Church are just that, descriptive and not merely prescriptive. We work and live as an expression of our identity, and not to gain acceptance (and identity) before God. ("We are accepted, therefore we obey.") We have been together for about 6 months now, so many of our conversations are like streams of thought that flow from one week through the next. The trajectory of our learning is to learn how to know, love and enjoy God above all else, and to learn how to do that for the benefit of others all the more.
Some of our time talked about how to relate to those who think they are Christians but are not truly regenerate (and how can one tell, and are we to judge?), that is, how does one become part of the true Church? And that our love for others is directly related to our love for God and we have no claim to being awakened by God if our affections do not overflow in practical ways to others.
I was reminded of a wuote from the 3rd century by Cyprian, bishop of Carthage:
“It is a bad world–-an incredibly bad world. But in the midst of it, I have found a quiet and a holy people who have learned a great secret. They are the despised and the persecuted, but they care not. They have overcome the world. These people are called Christians, and I am one of them.”
As the church, the community initiated by Christ and for Him, this is our job description, according to the Apostle Peter and the Holy Spirit:
As you come to Him, a living stone rejected by men but in the sight of God chosen and precious, you yourselves like living stones are being built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ….
But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for His own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul. Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.
[1 Peter 2:4-6, 9-12]
Truly, Christ will build His Church and nothing can successfully stand in His way (Matthew 16:18).
April 10th, 2008 at 8:58 am
This entry was an encouragement to me today in reflecting what’s important in eternity and the true nature of who we are corporately. Thanks