What is a Christian? Is a Christian a person who has got their stuff together?
Are they one who has things figured out? In Romans 7 Paul makes it pretty clear that a Christian doesn’t have it all together.
“14 We know that the law is spiritual; but I am unspiritual, sold as a slave to sin. 15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do… 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? 25 Thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
Does that sound like Paul had it all together? No. It is an odd thing about the gospel. It gives us two messages at the same time. Always two messages. One message? We are wretched! The other message? We are wonderful and beautiful.
I like the way one writer put it. “The gospel is good news for sick people and is disturbing for those who think they’ve got it all together. Some of us have been told our whole lives that we are wretched, but the gospel reminds us that we are beautiful. Others of us have been told our whole lives that we are beautiful, but he gospel reminds us that we are also wretched. THE CHURCH IS A PLACE WHERE WE CAN STAND UP AND SAY WE ARE WRETCHED, AND EVERYONE WILL NOD AND AGREE AND REMIND US THAT WE ARE ALSO BEAUTIFUL.”
What a paradox!
This is part of why faith is so interesting, so challenging. Wretched, beautiful. Beautiful, wretched.
We are constantly fighting this dichotomy Constantly. We are good. We are not so good. We are the empowered people of God. We are powerless over so many things that make us wretched. It is the way it is. And because it is the way it is, we have to join Paul in his lament “wretched person that I am”
And we have to join Paul in his celebration “Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord!”
This is not something we do well in the church. We don’t know what to do with weakness. With failure. With the dark side of our souls. And so our tendency is do one of two things. We either try to deny that this dark side even exists, or we allow it to define us, we allow it to control us, we let it beat us up!
What happens when we can’t accept, so to speak, this side of ourselves? What happens is that we have to pretend and hide. We sit in the pews and pray. Pray that no one sees as we really are! Pray that no one really can see the ooze and slime and old decay at the center of our being. We sit, oh so carefully. And we talk, oh so carefully. And we act, oh so carefully. And somewhere in the process we get lost. We become unreal… We hope we are fooling people. Perhaps we are fooling each other. But we aren’t fooling the world around us. This is why people so frequently look at Christians and call them hypocrites.
Paul points us to another way. He says we need to build our community around a common sense of wretchedness. But a common sense of wretchedness that is framed by a common sense of how much we are loved and valued by God. Make no mistake about it, they both have to be there!
I’ve met a lot of Christians who say “If people knew about all of my struggles and weaknesses they would never want to be a Christian. I think the opposite is true. If people really knew what idiots we are, in all our brokenness and vulnerability, they would know that this thing called Christianity is for them too. Remember Jesus’ words? It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners” (Matt. 9:12-13).
Would being real hurt the church? I suspect it would not. I think the world would be willing to listen to a church on its knees, a church that doesn’t pretend to be perfect or to have all the answers. When we are always trying to be perfect, be strong, when we are constantly fighting for respect, we are isolated, perhaps alone. It is lonely because people can’t be real with masks. They can’t love a façade.
The church should not be a place full of lonely people. t should be a place where very real people sit next to very real people. And we can dare to be that way! Why? Remember Paul’s words? Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord!
We can dare to be real, because of Christ, who rescues us from ourselves. Who sets us free to be who we are! Who we are, with all our imperfections. Who sets us free to be seen…. And – to see!
We are back again to grace. There is, that word again. Grace…. the transforming, scandalous, amazing, forgiving love of God.
When we accept who we are, and do so in the context of grace, the context of God’s love and acceptance, that allows us to be free - free to be our whole selves. The good, the bad and the ugly. We can be ourselves knowing that God accepts that whole person, and loves that whole person, and wants to move that very real person forward with his power and his love.
Shane Claiborne talks about a talk he once had with an old hippie friend who, he says “loves Jesus and smokes a lot of weed”. He and the friends often end up in friendly debates about faith and the Bible. One day he said to Shane, “Jesus never talked to a prostitute” Shane immediately went on the offensive. “Sure he did” and got ready to spar. But then his friend looked him in the eye and said “Listen, Jesus never talked to a prostitute because he didn’t see a prostitute. He just saw a child of God he was madly in love with.”
When we see ourselves a new way, we can see others a new way. When we love ourselves as we are, we can love others as they are, and know that they, like we, are a project A person under construction. A person loved and forgiven by God.
And then - we can truly be the church
We can be the place where people can stand up and say
I am wretched,
I need help
I am hurting
I am lost
And where everyone will nod, and agree, knowing they are in the same condition, and then remind the other, and themselves, that they are also wonderful - that they are loved and forgiven. And then . . we will all be free, and we will be able to say with Paul: What a wretched person I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God — through Jesus Christ our Lord!
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