"Bear one another's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ" Gal. 6:2
In the church, we like to appear as if we have it together. I've never seen a place where it's more important to people to APPEAR perfect. The reasoning ends up something like this - If Christians have come into contact with the God who desires us to be whole and who is capable of anything, then it only makes sense that we should be "put together" if we have put our faith in Him. If we appear that we are not "put together", it would not only reflect our failure in faith, but perhaps even God's failure to make us whole. So even when we are broken, lacking, and mired in life's struggles, we choose to look like Jack and Jill the perfect church-going saints of the neighborhood.
This flawed approach to our self-presentation within the church is not only dishonest, it stops short the power of grace in our lives. The scriptures are clear: we are sinners, weak and poor, in need of a strong and righteous God who comes to us in Jesus Christ. This fundamental identity as needy and dependent people who are redeemed by the Savior is the basis for being members in the church of God. The point at which our neediness for and dependency on God becomes masked by a masquerade of normalcy is the point at which we remove ourselves from the penetrating reach of transformative grace. But when we come in the raw - placing our insufficiencies, insecurities, and indiscretions before others who bear the same - we leave room for divine love to redeem and save. To bear one another's burdens suggests that we all have burdens and that the purpose of the church is to have a place - not to hide or deny them - but to share them. This can only be done in the context of a community of trust, respect, and mutual knowledge of the endless affection of an eternal God. But when it is done, when we lean on the Spirit of Christ in one another, we experience a release from the bondage of having to maintain a false sense of achievement and an invitation to the freedom of boasting in nothing but Christ crucified. Not only that, but we become an image of the invisible God to a world where masks are more naturally displayed than the truth of our faces.
Please swallow your pride
If you have things you need to borrow
For no one can fill those of your needs
That you won't let show
Great thoughts Ray. Thank you for sharing. You did it again, made me think. Your thoughts take me someplace I've never been before with my church experiences. Basically as I twist myself into your theory, I hear you suggesting that we should confess our sins to the church. I have questions. Is that the purpose of the church, help folks absolve their sins? Is it even possible? My sins are kind of personal, between me and God. I don't know that I could trust anyone else to judge. But I do value the deeper understanding of God’s will. The CHURCH can do that very well. I can fairly certainly tell you that I will strive to be better than I am. To the best of my ability I will attempt to reflect a Christian image, be your “Jack and Jill”. There is no value for me to subject my sins to someone else’s judgment. We can talk around the edges, for clarity sake. But I can’t imagine ever sharing my sin, defaulting to someone else’s judgment. They can’t handle it. I have heard a saying, “Teach a man to fish and he will never go hungry”. The CHURCH can provide the tools I need, but God and I will have to work things out.
ReplyDeleteRick, I meant to post this weeks ago, but I just now found a way to comment on my own blog! I have to use an anonymous profile! Here's what I wrote back then:
ReplyDeleteRick, thanks for your thoughts. I was never meaning to primarily refer to sin during this post. Our "burdens" include our struggles, our pain, our frustrations, our doubts, our suffering, and our hardship. In short, our honest humanity. We share these things not only because we cannot bear them alone, but also because by sharing them we draw on the presence of Christ among us (who all our burdens bears).
But your comments about sin bring up some interesting points. I do think that the art of confessing our sins to one another is a lost art of the church. Since God alone is righteous and holy and since God is the one who teaches what is right and good, God is the ONLY one who has the power to forgive and absolve sin. But here’s the thing: he shares that responsibility with us explicitly through the church (John 20:22-23). Particularly when we sin against one another (which we regularly do in the church, being sinners and all) we are to ask for forgiveness and give it in return. Asking for forgiveness includes some confession that we sinned. If we sin against someone, God is concerned that we are reconciled to Him and that person through forgiveness toward one another. We are called to reconcile to our brother before even coming to make an offering to the Lord. We are even told that unless we forgive one another, we cannot fully know the forgiveness of God. (Matt. 5:23-24, 6:12-15, 18:15-20). Confessing our sins is about forgiving one another, not about judging one another.
-Ray