In 1908, The Times newspaper asked a number of authors to write on the topic: “What’s wrong with the world?”. Gilbert Keith "G. K." Chesterton’s answer was the shortest of those submitted – he simply wrote: “Dear Sirs, I am. Sincerely yours, G.K. Chesterton”. Let you who is without sin throw the first stone.
I don’t like the church. No, I love it. God doesn’t give up on his church any more than he gives up on you. Or me. The faithful tenacity with which God hangs in there with his organized religious body on earth is a testimony to his willingness to forebear with us in spite of ourselves.
I don’t like the church. No, I love it. God doesn’t give up on his church any more than he gives up on you. Or me. The faithful tenacity with which God hangs in there with his organized religious body on earth is a testimony to his willingness to forebear with us in spite of ourselves.
It’s the easiest thing in the world to turn our backs on organized religion, to dismiss them all as hypocrites. But God doesn’t. God loves the self-righteous Pharisee as much as he loves the runaway-addict-sex trade worker. The church is God’s first line of transformation as he reveals himself in culture. There’s general revelation – God revealed in creation: when you see a sunset or the birth of a baby and you know – you just know – that there’s more to it. There’s special revelation – God revealed in His Son Jesus Christ and through his Word, the Bible.
Then there’s you and me, kid. Somewhere in the middle are the people of God, the children of God, the family of God. You can pick your friends but you can’t pick your relatives. And that’s why I’ll never turn my back on the church. I’m related. We’re flesh and blood. We’re His flesh and blood.
Communion -- the Lord's Supper, the Eucharist, whatever you want to call it -- matters. It’s there that we affirm that Christ gave his body for one body: the church. To turn our back on the church would be to turn our back on ourselves, and on Christ.
Christians disappoint, but no more than anyone else. At the end of the day, we’re going to turn around, look back upon it all, and drop our jaws in wonder. The tables will be turned, and what seems so strong and important now will be shown for all it’s not, and the meek shall inherit the earth. I like that.
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