On Weakness (A Real Entry for Once)

"Perhaps the greatest challenge to my faith is the behavior of Christians." This statement is made often, and sometimes I think it's nothing more than an excuse. a red herring thrown up by an antagonist in order to avoid dealing with the actual issues. Yet it does have a great deal validity and has become a struggle for me lately. Christians, of all people, claim to follow one who taught extensively about forgiveness and reconciliation. And Christians claim to be united to Christ and indwelt by the Holy Spirit who gives the power and strength to grow and change.

So why can they be such jerks? It is amazing the damage that Christians can do to each other, all the while cloaking it in cute little pious language. 6 months on a church session or a cursory study of church history quickly confirms this: Christians can and will do really, really stupid things.

Any individual Christian, if he is honest, will be forced to the realization that the same dichotomy runs within himself. I do really, really stupid things - as Paul so famously said, "I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing."

The tentative resolution that I have reached is that the church ultimately is called to proclaim grace, not perfection, Christ and not itself. If the church and all Christians in it were perfect in this life, it would diminish the reality that Jesus came to save the sick and not the healthy, the poor and not the rich. The church then proclaims that the grace of God is so great that it saves sinners as screwed up as we are.

August 15, 2005 09:40 AM
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6 Comments

amen amen amen

Pondered by crabby at August 15, 2005 06:04 PM

I hwas having a conversation this weekend with some friends about religion and stringency and stuff like that, and someone was making the strong point that there are a lot of religious hypocrites. I normally tend to agree with this, but found myself thinking that maybe that view is too strong. I want to live by certain moral values, but of course there are times when I waver. For example, if I think I should respect other people and then I do something that violates that respect, does that make me a hypocrite? Well, sure, by definition, but I don't usually think of it that way. I think of it as something I should apologize for, learn from, and not repeat in the future. It made me realize that I might need to extend that tolerance to others who would appear to be hypocrites in my eyes. Perhaps their actions are hypocritical, but I can't necessarily expect them to be perfect, especially if I am not myself.

Of course, there are hypocrites more generally and who are not simply wavering from a value system that they preach and claim to accept. But I certainly can't peg everyone like this, right?

I know that what I'm talking about isn't exactly the point you were making, but your post reminded me of this conversation, and the similarity I see in what we're talking about is in distinguishing between the ideals of a value system and the reality of how they're dealt with in daily life.

Pondered by seadragon at August 16, 2005 12:51 AM

nice to see you blogging again Maph. This was good stuff. I've noticed that (at least myself) we often run in peaks and valleys, so to speak, with our frustration at people or the Church. Most often I find my times of frustration at the Church coincide with a lack of engagement, and if you're not contributing, do you really have any right to complain?

Pondered by JosiahQ at August 16, 2005 09:44 PM

which is why in my mind its all about grace, like Paul said.

sorry, forgot to bring that back 'round

Pondered by JosiahQ at August 16, 2005 09:45 PM

seadragon,

This is a good point. There are, I think, varying levels of hypocrisy and what is sometimes slammed as full blown hypocrisy is most likely just unconscious inconsistency.

I guess where I was going with my post was that, at a weird level, for Christianity the failures of its adherents are actually consistent with its core teaching of sin and redemption. The core teaching isn't that we've got it together but rather that there is grace enough even for self-righteous blowhards.

Pondered by maphet at August 16, 2005 09:54 PM

josiah -

Oddly, my frustration has increased with my level of involvement.

Pondered by maphet at August 16, 2005 09:57 PM