"Not in Our Church"

I walked into church this past week to be told that the seat I was about to sit in was reserved for someone else. I watched as this member of the church told a few others the same thing. As I told this to another one of our youth leaders, the response was "...that happened in our church?" I have to admit I was pretty upset at the idea of reserved seating in church. Had this been my first Sunday at this church I may have not have a felt very welcomed, loved, or cared about in that moment. I spent most of the service angry about it and the guest pastor's sermon fired me up even more.

I enjoy being challenged by what the scriptures say and about my own thoughts and opinions. The pastor was giving a sermon on truly reflecting the image of Christ. He talked about what someones first impressions might be if they walked into church that morning. He talked about how we can make a church look good with lots of programming and friendly people, but can still miss the point of the Gospel. I watched judgmentally as the members that had refused me a seat in front of me nodded their heads in agreement. I was pretty upset as many others may be when the church lives out the stereotypes we are given.

The easiest thing to do is to be angry about it. As many of us watch the church spiral away from the core message of the gospel, we become disheartened and frustrated. I was reading a friend's blog and he was talking about how much money, time, and effort are spent on trying to keep people from making "wrong" decisions, specifically about homosexuality. The Presbyterian church has divided itself because some churches have become more "liberal" and don't want to associate with those "sinners." Romans 3:23 says "for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God." Every Christian believes that Christ died for our sins and that in Him we have eternal life. Isn't this the most important message that is consistent throughout scripture? I am not saying that nothing else in scripture matters, but at the core of the Bible is a message of love. We are called to love others without judgment. It is up to the Holy Spirit to convict others of their sins and how they can reconcile their relationship with God.

Christians are on the news picketing against abortion and against gay marriage and to be fair even for those things. What if we stopped spending our time arguing about who is right and who is wrong, whose lifestyle is the right one, and focused our eyes and our hearts on the cross? When we look to the cross and at the life of Jesus, there is no hatred. There is love for every single human being. I am not denying that there are consequences for our sin, but we tend to think that some people sin worse than others or because they sin "intentionally" that they are doomed to hell, but you tell me one time you have sinned after having known the Father and didn't know you were doing it. James 2:10 says "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it." The liar and the murderer stand next to each other in judgment. God knew we could not fight the temptation of sin on our own. That is why he sent his son and that's why his grace is given to us so freely. The following passage in James 1:19-25 came to mind as I was thinking about this.

My dear brothers, take note of this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak and slow to become angry, for man's anger does not bring about the righteous life that God desires. Therefore, get rid of all moral filth and the evil that is so prevalent and humbly accept the word planted in you, which can save you. Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says. Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But the man who looks intently into the perfect law that gives freedom, and continues to do this, not forgetting what he has heard, but doing it—he will be blessed in what he does.

I was hurt by how I was welcomed at church this past Sunday, but my easiest reaction was to be angry about it which accomplishes very little. What is important is how I respond. How do we respond when we feel the church is going in the wrong direction or a few people have missed the point? Have we hit the nail straight on the head in our own lives? Have we not slipped and missed the point a few times? God's word and the Life of His son are at the core of every believer. We must listen to what God is saying to us constantly, but I am pretty confident that he will never tell us to speak out against our brother. He tells us to love them and not to do anything that would cause them to stumble. Romans 14:19-21

"Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall."

I believe if we simply get angry at the situation of the church today we will fail God's people. We have to get back to the heart of the life of Christ. If we seek out his purposes in our lives and ask the Spirit to guide us to the people we must minister to, He will give us the truth to speak to others in love.  In each of our churches there are as many sinners as they are members. Each of them is searching for truth and love. We must not deny them these basic needs through our actions and our words.We have to constantly look in the mirror and ask ourselves if the image that reflects back at us is that of our Savior. What we see in the mirror will be what the world sees. If we want the world to see Jesus we have to follow Him in our own lives in everything we do.