Weird Ideas: Holy ChurchНамуна

Some balk at the idea of calling the church “holy.” In the US it’s fashionable for some to demonize the church as judgmental, bigoted, closed-minded, or irrelevant. For others there almost seems to be a dark delight when another scandal breaks or another church leader falls. Around the globe, the church is persecuted in ways reminiscent of its first few centuries. Some damn it by its history, perhaps segregation issues in the pre-Civil Rights South, or reaching back to things like the Inquisition or the Crusades. Gandhi is famously quoted as saying: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.” There’s even a quip in the church that you know it has to be of God, because only an organization this poorly managed could endure for so long if God was not with it.

Maybe one of the most common accusations I hear is that the church is full of hypocrites. Heartbreaking, when hypocrisy dissuades people from coming to the Church. But to this, I say, “Yes. Yes, it is. And thanks be to God that it is! The Church is a place where sinners are welcome.”

When it comes down to it, there are three types of people in this world: those who are perfect, those who don’t stand for anything, and those who are hypocrites.

First, let’s talk about those who are perfect. When we talk about those who are perfect, it’s important to define what we mean. For some, “perfection” (or lack of hypocrisy) means living fully in accord with a personally held belief system. The world is filled with many belief systems. Some are achievable, because what they demand is so low or vaguely defined. It also becomes easy to adopt belief systems that conform to our life patterns rather than the other way around. Christians are different. They don’t create a belief system that matches their life pattern or some low call that’s vaguely defined. Instead, they proclaim a belief system from God. It is high and unattainable. But that doesn’t stop them from adopting it as a personal call for their life. Christians will never be perfect people. They hold to a standard simply too far above them.

The second kind of person is someone who doesn’t stand for anything. Often this is true in thought more than in reality. Out of an aversion to being hypocritical, appearing judgmental, or being wrong, some reject any kind of binding standard upon humanity. Christians will never be these kinds of people either. They believe God has given a binding standard for humanity, and cannot ignore it.

This leaves one kind of person: hypocrites. People who cling to a standard higher than what they live. Christians will always be hypocrites. It’s the inevitable result of claiming God’s standard as good and true with the full knowledge of not living up to it.

None of this should excuse hypocrisy. Jesus saves some of his harshest words for religious hypocrites. What it does mean is that as long as our lives don’t match the standard we profess, we must live in open and honest humble repentance.

The Church is at its best when it lives this way – not pretending to have it all together; not masking over its sins. The church is at its best when it demonstrates it is a place for broken, repentant hypocrites. Honest about its shortcomings, quick to seek forgiveness for its sins, driven to right its wrongs, and unafraid to show itself as real people with real-life issues and struggles, warts and all.

Calling the church “holy” should never be misunderstood as claiming it’s perfect. Maybe it’s better to see “holy” as a label for a collection of sinful people striving towards God’s call on their life, and practicing patience with each other as God does his slow transformational work within them.