While no one has imposed a code of wearing uniforms to church, there has indeed been a passage of uniform code that has lulled the church to sleep. I speak of our general passivity and shallowness. I speak of myself.
Especially we in the Churches of Christ seem to have had a bent which vocally expressed our confidence that we were truer to the Bible than other church brands. Being true to the Word is honorable. Being proud that we are better than others is anti-biblical.
When we compare ourselves to ourselves and class ourselves by ourselves, II Cor. 10:12 insists that we are without understanding. We are just that.
Robert Bly said, Some women want a passive man if they want a man at all; the church wants a tamed man--they are called priests; the university wants a domesticated man--they are called tenure-track people; the corporation wants a....sanitized, hairless, shallow man. And then Sharon Hersh (speaking of Jesus) follows with, But we addicts know that we need a wild man.
Last night I sat in the living room of a brother who was skunk drunk. He was obnoxious and teary, belligerent and saddened. The scene was putrid except for one definitive truth; the Wild Man died for this weary traveler. I could not help but notice how much I love this struggler.
My point is that the church has done things so decent and in order for so long we have become numbed and immune to the cratered, drunk, exasperated neighbor....which makes the church indecent and out of order.
May we find it within our growing and maturing in Christ to know Him as the Wild Man who dares to wade into our communities with both compassion and effective assistance. I am one of the tamed, domesticated, and shallow.
The lost just can't afford for us to be lost in our churchianity with our insistent priorities of safety. May we hear the call of the Wild Man wishing to live from within each of us....and then may we find the power to transform the broken-hearted into a new and wild life.
Because of the Wild Man, might there be the truest of hope that the dull and the dead in our sins could arise to walk a new path called Abundant Life?
1 comment:
Terry--this is an excellent post! You are right. For too long, the church's priority has been safety. As a result, we have become tone deaf to our neighbors. Thanks.
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