Why The Church?

Churches are full of selfish, sinful people who make it harder to be a Christian. I should know, I'm one of them. And so, I'd bet, are you. There can be no doubt that there are also a lot of Christians that make it easier to believe. We all know that kindly person, that one-in-a-million religious type whose very profoundness of being makes you more likely to believe in God. The church produces its fair share of saints. And while I've known atheists who are like this, there have been far, far fewer, and I've always found 'something missing', namely the bringing together of belief and action, the failure to take what they do and reflect on it and put it at the center of their worldview.

It is notable, at least for me anecdotally, that there have been more Christians who have lived that kind of 'oh my God there is a God' kind of life than almost any other type of person I've known. And there have been far more religious types that produce that kind of life than non-religious types, in my experience. But even with that said, there are far more jerks, selfish people, and generally annoying human beings in Church than almost anywhere else. Get groups of people together their jerkiness increases exponentially with their number. Get people together in the name of God, this happens even more so. Get people together in the name of Jesus Christ, and watch out.

Of course, on one level, this is exactly what we should expect. The church was set out to save the unsaveable. Jesus says He came to call not the righteous, but sinners to repentance. On that score, I'd say the Church is a 'win' for the old J-Man. Again, I'm not talking about some group other than myself. I know I'm an arrogant jerk, and I am trying very hard to be who God wants me to be, and failing most of the time. So, why should anyone impede their spiritual growth by surrounding themselves with such people? Why not just go off, believe in God, or heck even in Jesus Christ, and let that be that? Why do we need this community at all?

Well first of all, if you do have some insight or if you are a saintly type, we jackenapes could use your help. We are told not to put our light under a bushel, and it seems wrong for the truly enlightened to just cut themselves off from those who need them most. And look, we've collected those who need you most all in one institution. If you were looking for some way to put your knowledge into action, we got the place right there.

But moreover, the Church is supposed to be the Body of Christ...the continuation of the Incarnation. Now part of that is about sharing in the struggle, I think, that God experienced by becoming incarnate. What did it mean for God to self-empty Himself and take on this limited, accosted flesh we all share and to live within the human community, often acting at its worst? What was this for Him? One way we come to know that is by living out the difficulties that come with forming human community in His name. Religion need not be a dirty word, to be replaced by 'faith'. Religion is about the binding together of sinful humans under the name of God. It cannot replace genuine relationship, but it opens us up to the full measure of difficulty that comes when sinful people search out for the highest ideals. It is only in the church as flawed and incomplete that we can in any way know what it was like for the Highest to become human, for those ideals to actually become enfleshed and accosted by things of the flesh.

The sublime moments of the religious life are wonderful. In them we come to know the Resurrection and the coming of the Holy Spirit. We all have them, especially in worship. They come both inside and outside the church, for they are the grace of God to us. But we can only really know the fullness of God when we also understand the Cross and the Incarnation, the self-limiting and suffering of the Divine. That only comes by working out our relationship with other people in the light of that Higher Something that makes the difficulties so sharp. The Church in all its forms: as a locus of our encounter with resurrection and our sharing in the Cross, is an important part of a well-lived human life.