I know – an awkward title – but I wanted it to fit with yesterday’s thought. Maybe this should say, What Shouldn’t the Church be? We all probably have ideas of ways in which the church could behave better or be better, but I am thinking about this on a macro level. When we think about the church, and what our hopes and dreams are for it, we often ignore the elephants in the room. We see the dysfunction and rationalize it; we say, “But the church does so much good – why point out the few bad apples? Why focus on the negative when there is so much good being done?” Fair enough – the church is a human construct trying to do good but sometimes – maybe, often – it does bad things. And I am not saying we should throw the church away when there is so much good being done. Still…
The church should not be beholden or supportive of one political party. While it will always be seen as somewhat political in nature, that pseudo-political behavior should only be around moral issues. For example, we should advocate to end homelessness and support education. Somehow, these, among so many issues, became political because we don’t always agree on how to deal with them. The church should ask what God wants for all people, not just one group. We should not focus only on the well-being of Christians, but all of God’s children. The church should not horde wealth. We need money to do our work, and that means that we need savings and daily spending money. When a church or denomination has wealth that is not used for God’s work, that wealth should be taxed. And we should never store up riches while people around us are hungry. The church should not support other organizations that go against our basic belief system. If a ministry treats women as inferior or hates LGBTQ people, our congregation will not support that work, no matter how much good they do. We have to be consistent and live with integrity.
Religious institutions do a lot of good, and that should be lifted up and appreciated. We also, sometimes by accident and sometimes on purpose, do things that are not good, and that should be confessed to, atoned for, and learned from. The church isn’t perfect – only God is perfect – but we can certainly be better. With God’s help, and yours.
Prayer – Holy God, we try to be our best; forgive us when we aren’t and guide us towards being more for You. Amen.
Today’s art is “With Love” by Ivan Guaderamma.