The Business of the Church
He said to his disciples, “The harvest is great, but the workers are few…”
Matthew 9:37
At the end of September I was given the opportunity to visit Washington DC with two of my cousins. It was during our time there that the confirmation process of Judge Kavanaugh and the testimony of Dr. Christine Blasley Ford was taking place. The tension during our time in DC was immense, not only in the private conversations between the three of us but in the city itself. We discussed at length the proceedings, our feelings, and what we hoped the outcome would be. One of the most powerful moments for me was when we found ourselves in the middle of a protest in support of Dr. Ford. The energy in the air was palpable. As I stood there among the masses of people that assembled on the steps of the Supreme Court I watched and listened. I saw signs with “KAVA-NOPE” inscribed upon them, strewn across the sea of people, others including myself holding signs declaring “I BELIEVE DR. CHRISTINE BLASLEY FORD”. It was undeniably electric. However, as I stood there and witnessed all that was happening around me I began to look at those who had gathered in attendance and was shaken by what I saw. Far greater than a politically energized mob of people, who were asserting a specific agenda, was a group of people, men and women, many of whom have been wounded at the hands of another. There were people there who have been raped, beaten, molested, and abused. There were people there who have reached out for help and have not been believed and have been brushed off. There were people there who have been oppressed and disenfranchised. There was pain.
The question I have been asking myself is…WHERE IS THE CHURCH? Also I need to be clear that I am, to some extent, speaking to those in leadership within the global big “C” church, but far more I am speaking to the laypeople of the body of CHRIST. I am speaking to myself and to all of us. I am speaking to those of us who sit with fingers at the ready to defend our ideologies and theologies on whatever platform we feel like. In the midst of such brokenness and pain why do we continue to tout our nationalism and shroud it in religiosity? Why do we tow the party line at the cost of another’s soul? Why do we turn away those who do not look like us or think like us? The church has lodged itself into the epicenter of the political landscape in our country and at tremendous cost. What will it take for us to look into the eyes of the wounded and unheard and press in to listen and hear? What will it take for us to see and humbly listen to the heart of a person of color and choose to fight for them and their rights? We must repent and beg God to have mercy on us for our pharisaical behavior. We must walk humbly, denying our opinionated and self-righteous tendencies, and begin to reach outside of our political, racial, and moral scape. Many in the church wonder why people are turning away from Christianity and I have to say that I am not surprised in the slightest We have done too much “business” in the church that is not God’s business. When we allow any cultural force or ideology to influence or distort how we treat others, see others and love others, that is anything other than God-honoring and God-glorifying we are SINNING!!! Romans 3:23
God is not glorified by our nationalism. God is not glorified when we attack another for expressing what they believe. God is not glorified when our political opinions wound those around us and cause dissension. God is not glorified when we see rampant racism in our country and say “I did not do that”, “That’s not my fault”, or anything other than “I am sorry” and begin to work toward awareness and reconciliation. God is not glorified when you treat the opposite sex as anything other than an image bearer of the Most High God. God is not glorified by our “righteous” hostility and “holy” indignation and belligerent defensiveness. God is not glorified when we clamor for the government to abolish horrific and ungodly practices as we sit idly by chanting the rhetoric of the echo chamber we place ourselves in instead of being the hands and feet of Jesus. God is not glorified when we choose self-preservation instead of ministering to the widow, the orphan, and the oppressed. God is not glorified when election time comes and our pulpits are filled with sermons that speak against every oppositional political platform and are not teaching us how to love our neighbors and make disciples. God is not glorified when those closest to us know more about where are allegiances lie more than they know where are faith lies and where are hope comes from. God is not glorified when we perpetuate the rhetoric of hate and divisiveness. God is not glorified when you and I find PRIDE in anything. You and I deserve death and destruction, yet we continue to sin, and are blind and arrogant.
I cannot and will not be PROUD of where I live while those in our neighborhoods, cities, country, and the world are being denied access to common grace, the goodness of God available to all, by you and me. I will not be proud of the denomination that I grew up in or the political party that I have associated myself with my whole life when both have perpetuated divisiveness and oppression in this country. I will boast, with every fiber of my being, of my great need for Jesus, of my great and desperate need for the mercy of the Holy Spirit to guard my mouth and heart, and I will boast all the more in that I am nothing…nothing at all apart from what is given to me by a gracious, merciful, and holy God.
There has never been a greater need in our country for separation of church and state, and by that, I mean separation of church and political party and platform. The CHURCH needs to be about God’s business of making disciples of all nations, not aligning itself with any political ideology or platform. For what end are we leveraging our influence in the lives of those around us? Are we seeking to assert a specific political agenda or doing the work of expanding the kingdom? Are we so desperate to be “Right” and be known as morally superior or are we desperate to be continually be made righteous before a Holy God? Our country is experiencing a diaspora in reverse, an incredible movement of people of all nations, tribes, and tongues seeking safety, freedom, and hope at our doorsteps, and all the while the church sits idly by in its echo chamber of comfort and safety. The whole world is coming to us, to our neighborhoods, and cities and what are we, the church doing to lodge ourselves into the epicenter of the plight of the foreigner? God forgive us for our idolatry, arrogance, and self-preservationist petulance.
Church it is time for the Church to actually be the CHURCH, the bride of Christ. It is time for the Church to be about the business of what God calls us to be, and not what our political affiliation begs us to be.
Philippians 3:1-21
1 Whatever happens, my dear brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord. I never get tired of telling you these things, and I do it to safeguard your faith.
2 Watch out for those dogs, those people who do evil, those mutilators who say you must be circumcised to be saved.
3 For we who worship by the Spirit of God are the ones who are truly circumcised. We rely on what Christ Jesus has done for us. We put no confidence in human effort,
4 though I could have confidence in my own effort if anyone could. Indeed, if others have reason for confidence in their own efforts, I have even more!
5 I was circumcised when I was eight days old. I am a pure-blooded citizen of Israel and a member of the tribe of Benjamin—a real Hebrew if there ever was one! I was a member of the Pharisees, who demand the strictest obedience to the Jewish law.
6 I was so zealous that I harshly persecuted the church. And as for righteousness, I obeyed the law without fault.
7 I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done.
8 Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ
9 and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith.
10 I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death,
11 so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!
12 I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me.
13 No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead,
14 I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
15 Let all who are spiritually mature agree on these things. If you disagree on some point, I believe God will make it plain to you.
16 But we must hold on to the progress we have already made.
17 Dear brothers and sisters, pattern your lives after mine, and learn from those who follow our example.
18 For I have told you often before, and I say it again with tears in my eyes, that there are many whose conduct shows they are really enemies of the cross of Christ.
19 They are headed for destruction. Their god is their appetite, they brag about shameful things, and they think only about this life here on earth.
20 But we are citizens of heaven, where the Lord Jesus Christ lives. And we are eagerly waiting for him to return as our Savior.
21 He will take our weak mortal bodies and change them into glorious bodies like his own, using the same power with which he will bring everything under his control.
Matthew 16:24-28
24 Then Jesus said to his disciples, “If any of you wants to be my follower, you must give up your own way, take up your cross, and follow me.
25 If you try to hang on to your life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save it.
26 And what do you benefit if you gain the whole world but lose your own soul? Is anything worth more than your soul?
27 For the Son of Man will come with his angels in the glory of his Father and will judge all people according to their deeds.
28 And I tell you the truth, some standing here right now will not die before they see the Son of Man coming in his Kingdom.”
Romans 3:9-31
9 Well then, should we conclude that we Jews are better than others? No, not at all, for we have already shown that all people, whether Jews or Gentiles, are under the power of sin.
10 As the Scriptures say,
“No one is righteous—
not even one.
11 No one is truly wise;
no one is seeking God.
12 All have turned away;
all have become useless.
No one does good,
not a single one.”
13 “Their talk is foul, like the stench from an open grave.
Their tongues are filled with lies.”
“Snake venom drips from their lips.”
14 “Their mouths are full of cursing and bitterness.”
15 “They rush to commit murder.
16 Destruction and misery always follow them.
17 They don’t know where to find peace.”
18 “They have no fear of God at all.”
19 Obviously, the law applies to those to whom it was given, for its purpose is to keep people from having excuses, and to show that the entire world is guilty before God.
20 For no one can ever be made right with God by doing what the law commands. The law simply shows us how sinful we are.
Christ Took Our Punishment
21 But now God has shown us a way to be made right with him without keeping the requirements of the law, as was promised in the writings of Moses and the prophets long ago.
22 We are made right with God by placing our faith in Jesus Christ. And this is true for everyone who believes, no matter who we are.
23 For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
24 Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.
25 For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood. This sacrifice shows that God was being fair when he held back and did not punish those who sinned in times past,
26 for he was looking ahead and including them in what he would do in this present time. God did this to demonstrate his righteousness, for he himself is fair and just, and he makes sinners right in his sight when they believe in Jesus.
27 Can we boast, then, that we have done anything to be accepted by God? No, because our acquittal is not based on obeying the law. It is based on faith.
28 So we are made right with God through faith and not by obeying the law.
29 After all, is God the God of the Jews only? Isn’t he also the God of the Gentiles? Of course he is.
30 There is only one God, and he makes people right with himself only by faith, whether they are Jews or Gentiles.
31 Well then, if we emphasize faith, does this mean that we can forget about the law? Of course not! In fact, only when we have faith do we truly fulfill the law.
I John 1:5-10
5 This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all.
6 So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth.
7 But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
8 If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth.
9 But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.
10 If we claim we have not sinned, we are calling God a liar and showing that his word has no place in our hearts.
I Thessalonians 2:1-12
1 You yourselves know, dear brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not a failure.
2 You know how badly we had been treated at Philippi just before we came to you and how much we suffered there. Yet our God gave us the courage to declare his Good News to you boldly, in spite of great opposition.
3 So you can see we were not preaching with any deceit or impure motives or trickery.
4 For we speak as messengers approved by God to be entrusted with the Good News. Our purpose is to please God, not people. He alone examines the motives of our hearts.
5 Never once did we try to win you with flattery, as you well know. And God is our witness that we were not pretending to be your friends just to get your money!
6 As for human praise, we have never sought it from you or anyone else.
7 As apostles of Christ we certainly had a right to make some demands of you, but instead we were like children among you. Or we were like a mother feeding and caring for her own children.
8 We loved you so much that we shared with you not only God’s Good News but our own lives, too.
9 Don’t you remember, dear brothers and sisters, how hard we worked among you? Night and day we toiled to earn a living so that we would not be a burden to any of you as we preached God’s Good News to you.
10 You yourselves are our witnesses—and so is God—that we were devout and honest and faultless toward all of you believers.
11 And you know that we treated each of you as a father treats his own children.
12 We pleaded with you, encouraged you, and urged you to live your lives in a way that God would consider worthy. For he called you to share in his Kingdom and glory.