One way to describe “Sin”, the problem with humanity, is that we naturally turn away from the “other”—the person who comes from another family or tribe, thinks differently, dresses or acts in ways that we don’t understand. We consciously and subconsciously sort ourselves into groups of similarity. We form clubs, teams, party and even “neighborhoods” where we can be with people “like ourselves.” This gives us comfort and a sense of belonging. But this becomes sin because we often treat “others” as strange, suspicious, or even hostile. This is what Sin does: turns something natural and good (like caring for your family or tribe) into something that dehumanizes and destroys the “other.”
God overcomes Sin in Christ. Christ comes as the ultimate “other,” God-in-the-flesh, who is rejected and killed on the cross. But God raised Christ in triumph over Sin and the human inclination to destroy what is different. In Christ, there is a new humanity that does not reject the “other” but sees them as neighbor and loves the one that is different.
The Church is this group of people who are gathered around Christ, the “other” who changes us, who drives us to love the person we now see as our neighbor. There is no Church without Christ at the center, transforming people to care about others. There is no Church, then, unless it is a group of people who are different from each other but knows it is Christ that brings them together.
In this sense, if everyone in church is like you, its not really Church. If you never have to struggle to understand where someone is coming from, if you never feel like an outsider, if you never interact with someone who thinks, looks or acts differently than you, it probably isn’t Church. If there’s no misunderstanding or disagreement, it may not be Church. It may be a club, a team, a party of similar people but it likely isn’t Church. Nowhere else in society will you find such a motley group of people, strangely and wonderfully bound together by the one they call Christ.
The local congregation is not free of Sin, however. We are both Saints and Sinners on the road with Christ becoming new people, and along the way we still struggle with the sinful tendency to turn the church into a club or a party of people who look, think and act alike. We become impatient with difference. We subtly and overtly let “the other” know they don’t belong. Check yourself: have you every reacted in less-than-loving ways to people who are different than you? Have you ever ignored someone to talk to a person you feel more comfortable with? I have. We need to repent.
The Good News is God forgives! God makes us new people in Christ! The world needs us to be their neighbor, to know that God is gathering all people together in Christ!
Your neighbor in Christ,
Pastor Peter