Its a bit too late to blog, but I am trying to make it a point to do so every night that I can. I can't help but think we are doing this all terribly wrong in the church. It bothers me that we seem to downplay sin and the problems of the church. We have an almost bipolar notion of the evils of the world. At one moment we talk about total depravity and the fallen world as if it is so impossibly evil, and then the next we find ourselves talking about is wondrous beauty. I can't help but think we are doing this all a grave disservice. The world is truly atrocious; but there is something which preserves it. However, American Christianity becomes so focused on that redemptive grace that we often exclude the evil from which it stands in stark contrast.
It is not enough for us to say how wonderful the church is and then overlook the fact that it is made of very fallible human beings. We must acknowledge that the church is made of flawed people such as ourselves and work for a reconciliation with how it should be. The world sees us as patting ourselves on the back; but questions why we do such things. Our accomplishments do not warrant such self-congratulatory behavior. It is here where someone would say, "exactly, and that is the point of grace." I would ask, "Then why are we congratulating ourselves for it? Grace is not something we bestow upon ourselves." We demand this "cheap grace" for our own merits, but the church demonstrates just how foolish it is to live expecting merits. The church's failures show our desperate need for reconciliation and represent a microcosm of God's plan for the redemption of the cosmos. Truly it starts here first ... that is, if we are humble enough to see it. We must make the church the family it has always declared itself to be, only then will we be reflecting real grace and not the "I'm okay, you're okay" grace of a people who haven't yet given up on redemption by the law.
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