Death Rattle of an Old Movement
I often think of what our current political state will do to the future of the church. The division is deep and feels an awful lot like bone being split from the marrow; a definitive and painful separation of a body that was supposed to remain intact. The election isn’t the reason for the division, it’s just the last indignity.
The truth is, our expression of faith is greatly impacted by the way that we read scripture and the way that we define God in our own hearts. When we don’t understand the love and acceptance of God, we try our best to follow the rules, and when the law trumps the love of the cross, faith becomes a construct instead of a way of life.
When faith becomes reduced to what we say that we believe, we are then in the precarious position of convincing others to agree with us, and agreement can never take the place of love. This way of “believing” has almost no bearings on the way that we live and engage with others. When there is no action, we forget what love looks like; we forget Jesus.
Greg Boyd puts it this way, “We always become the portrait of God that we worship.” Do we worship a demanding and angry God? We will become angry and demanding messengers. Do we serve a God who befriended us, or who begrudged us? This will determine if we accept others or use tools of manipulation to gain their empty confidence. It is vital that we purify our portrait of God, and the litmus test is always love.
Do we (not only) accept those on the margins, but do we dine with them? Do we forgive our enemies? Do we sacrifice for the sake of love? Do we accept rebuke and discipline? Have our opinions become idols that we cannot let go of?
Right now there are groans echoing within the walls of the church; the death rattle of an old movement. A movement that reduces a life of faith to believing the right things while neglecting to live honorably and serve lovingly. A movement that sets division as the cost of being right. This dying movement would rather build walls than make room at the table.
While I don’t think this year’s election will solve any problems in and of itself, I do think that once the decision is made and the waters can settle, that we will be able to see more clearly the damage we have done and realize that a body cannot withstand the separation that it’s endured. A divided house will crumble, and this old movement and all of its failings can hopefully help us paint a new image of the God of love - one that will resurrect the world from the dead and wake the sleeping bride.