When a Christian leader is exposed in a serious, habitual and “secret” moral lapse, sometimes I hear people say things like:
-“People are bound to fail and the church is made up of imperfect people. Keep your eyes on Jesus; he is all that matters.” or,
-“The message still may be true, even if the messenger is untrue. Stay focused on the message and don’t get sidetracked by the messenger.”
This response, however, is unsatisfying to me for the following reasons:
1. Because…growth opportunity.
Saying “just stay focused on Jesus” can easily be used as a cop-out. Serious, secret, habitual moral lapses in those who are supposed to help us live according to our better nature should cause us to wonder “what went wrong” and “how can we truly mature?” When we too easily dismiss tragedies of this nature, we neglect to reflect on what may be flawed in our systems or thinking that may have created the conditions for such tragedies.
For example, the way we structure “leadership” probably needs to be changed if we are going to avoid repeating and enabling the dysfunction. One other friend suggested to me that we may also need to take another look at the sexual ethics of evangelical Christianity. I’m not sure to what extent that holds, but at least part of what he is saying may be right. In either case, if we too easily dismiss what has happened by employing the maxim “just stay focused on Jesus,” we miss the opportunity for deeper reflection and spiritual growth in our own lives.
2. Because…incarnation.
I am especially focusing on Christian leaders in these reflections because of an important distinction that Christians say is unique to their faith. It’s this: Christianity is not, first and foremost, a philosophical system, a thought-grid composed of abstractions. Christianity is about a Person and his Body (a Body that is supposedly animated by the Spirit of the Person we claim to follow). Implications:
A. In the Christian faith, one cannot separate the message from the messenger.
Christianity asserts: “The message IS the messenger.” The apostle John put it this way: “The Word became FLESH.” Jesus himself put it this way: “I MYSELF am…the truth.” (Yes, he used a double emphasis on the word “I”). The Christian has no message but “Jesus Christ, and him crucified.” The messenger is our message.
B. The Church, as the Body of Christ, is called to exhibit the same integrity as her Lord, who was both fully human and fully divine. He became what we are so that we could become what he is.
Now, granted: none of us will ever be perfect. That is why we need grace and forgiveness. And, thanks be to God, he never stops offering us grace and forgiveness when we stumble and fall. His mercies are truly new every morning.
But God’s offer of grace only accomplishes half the glorious exchange. He doesn’t force his grace on us. If we don’t want it, he’ll respect that—he loves us that much. Christianity says: “To apply God’s grace to your life, you have to want it; you have to be willing to receive it. You don’t have to DO anything for it…but you do have to want it.”
Part of receiving it is acknowledging you need to receive it, humbly confessing your need of it, and then letting that love re-order all your affections throughout the entire course of your life. It takes humility to receive grace. That’s all; just humility.
Humility accomplishes this because it prompts a sinner like me to conduct a fearless moral inventory, trusting that truth itself is grace—my saving grace. Without honesty, there can be no reception of grace. There will always be an offer of grace and that grace continuously invites me into a hospitable spiritual place where honesty is welcome—but unless I am willing to take Grace up on her offer, and unless I am willing to be honest before the face of Grace…there can be no personal redemption and renewal—only hiding and faking it.
This kind of honesty feels like crucifixion to sinners like me. But, wonder of wonders, that is when Jesus, by his grace, breaks the power of death and says, “Take heart! To die to self is to rise to new life! The two always come together! Do you mourn? You’ll be comforted! Do you hunger? You’ll be fed! Are you guilty and ashamed? You’ll be forgiven and lifted up!”
By this process—the process of receiving grace day by day humbly—the Spirit of Christ transforms us. That is the real hope we profess: transformation, redemption, freedom. So…
What is true of the message
must be true of the messenger
or we have no message at all.
That is why habitual, secret transgressions such as those that occur sometimes among Christian leaders is especially upsetting to me. If what the messenger is saying isn’t true of the messenger…we have no message.
Christianity is encounter.
2 comments:
I've been reading about the latest iteration of the priest scandal in the U.S. Catholic Church, this one involving a cardinal, archbishops, bishops, priests, seminaries. And then we see the things that have been happening in large Protestant and evangelical churches. Troy, I think we're seeing a winnowing out of the church at large. I don't think we see the reason yet, but it's as if we're being prepared for something. The church may end up being smaller, but it may also end up being stronger.
Glynn, as always your words are insightful. Thank you for sharing and I agree with you. More and more, the vital, holistic expressions of Christianity in America are going “underground” because they don’t get the same press as the big, flashy ministries. Consumerism—combined with a celebrity culture that measures success by the number of likes, followers, and books sold—is killing us. We are literally gaining the world but losing our soul. And the very way we structure “ministry” supports this culture. As Alan Hirsch observes often: “Our system is perfectly designed to achieve the results we are getting.” I advocate a fundamental change in our very way of being—and your comments serve as a good reminder that Jesus is calling us to repentance (as unfashionable as that term is to us).
A couple weeks ago I was speaking at a conference in PA and noted an irony that, according to the official polls, Christianity in America is “dying” as researchers uncover a decline in church attendance overall and an increase in those who declare “no religious affiliation” (called “the Nones” by researchers—a rather pejorative way to name beloved souls, I feel). But the figures do not reflect the global church, the “immigrant” church and the church among “people of color.” Soong Chan-Rah rightly points out that, among those populations, the church is thriving. White evangelicalism needs to wake up and learn from those we have tacitly regarded as “beneath” us. We need to be led by our brothers and sisters of color.
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