Let's Start Helping

"The main evidence against the truth of Christianity is the life of Christians."
— G.K. Chesterton

"The clouds roll with thunder, that the house of the Lord shall be built throughout the earth; and these frogs sit in their marsh and croak 'We are the only Christians!'"
— St. Augustine

God's family seems to be the most dysfunctional of all.

A goal of any group should be to relate well to itself. People within a group should be able to come to a healthy consensus on what it means to possess and live out a common belief. At least in this way, Christianity is a pretty crappy group. In a clutch, we're almost always quicker to condemn each other compared to our willingness to lovingly correct.

I'm sure it isn't difficult to generate a list of people who drag the name of Jesus through the mud. Some of us just thought of the Westboro Baptist Church. Others thought of some friends who are constantly saying things that come across as hateful, bigoted, or just plain ignorant. Regardless of the mental image, the message is the same; there are people who are claiming to represent the name of Jesus, but do a terrible job.

When "these people" are brought up in conversation, the reaction from Christians tends to be fairly uniform. Usually a statement along the lines of "Oh, I'm not like them, I'm a real Christian because of *insert reasons here*," makes an appearance. In a sense, this is an appropriate reaction. As Chesterton points out, Jesus is often misrepresented by His followers. Scripture declares, in truth, that "God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him." Jesus didn't choose to die on a cross so that we could pick and choose who should hear the truth of God's love. As Christians, our lives boil down to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength," and "love your neighbor as yourself." If we or one of our spiritual siblings are not living up to these commands, something should be said.

But what is it that we say? We, who claim to understand all that it is to be a Christian. We, who are so quick to divorce ourselves from our spiritual family with an "Oh, I'm not like them." We frogs, as Augustine would say.

When we are so quick to distance ourselves from anyone who even appears to misrepresent Christ, we do more than just split our own spiritual family. We scoff at God's intention for how He wants to spread His Kingdom. Jesus declares that we "will be [His] witnesses" throughout the entire world. God has chosen to use imperfect people to communicate His love and His grace. In this statement no stipulation is made that we must be this spiritually mature to ride this ride. Instead, Jesus opens the door wide and declares that if we have experienced any measure of His infinite grace we have the pleasure of being Jesus' mouthpiece to the world. How are we helping by declaring that everyone who bumbles over a single word isn't worthy of declaring God's love?

I'm the first one to admit that the Church could use some work. We could be better educated, we could be more engaged, and we could always be more loving. The question I have to ask myself, however, is what am I doing to help bring about this better version of the Church? Am I actively looking for opportunities to be a part of the solution, or only making the problem more apparent?

Tragically, both of the quotes which began this post are true. We often misrepresent God, and even when we think we have it all figured out we do little to help those trapped in ignorance. Thankfully, God recognizes this. What I see is a two-fold call for us to better represent Christ. When we misrepresent God, we should receive words of correction well, to respond to the shaping word of Scripture as it calls us to be more loving, more educated, more engaged. In short, more Christ-like. At the same time, however, we are called to be patient with each other. We are called to help each other grow in love, in understanding, in godliness. As much as we are called to be Jesus to the watching world, let's be certain we are also Jesus to each other.

With His love and grace,

Taylor