The Animated Church

If we created a being to represent the 'Body of Christ' based on who the church is, we wouldn't want to associate with the very being we've created. We'd have a head full of knowledge and theology, but necrotic fingers and a failing heart. We would electively rid of the organs that feed the body no purpose. We'd be dolled up with the most glamorous hair and aesthetics, yet our lungs would be consumed with the cancer of worldly things and our arteries with the love of the money in the offering plate. If anyone showed up who looked or acted differently, or maybe wasn't as good as we are at hiding our sins, we'd flood the body with antibiotics to make sure they know that they don't belong. We'd be legally blind to our own faults. We would be a being that didn't look any different than the rest of the world. 

The church as a body is ill. It's consumed with itself and has no room to care for the lost. It's too busy feeding itself a five course meal to even offer a wafer to the poor. If I were lost, I wouldn't want to be a part of that body either. 

Dear church, we're not expanding the Kingdom, we're just getting in the way. The image we've created of ourselves is just that-- an image. It's not real. Those that are not a part of the church see right through us. They know that we are as fake as Caitlyn Jenner (excuse the controversy). 

Sacrifice. That's what the Gospel is all about. When's the last time we sacrificed anything knowing we would receive nothing in return? The more I surround myself with lost people, the more I understand why they want nothing to do with people just like me. 

Love. That's what Jesus is all about. We need to ask ourselves "what's the point?" What's the point of meeting every Sunday morning? What's the point in learning and studying the parables of scripture? I was sad to realize that my answer to that question had way too many personal pronouns. 

The church is not the building that we meet in weekly, the church is us and the life we live in front of others. That's the church that has the most power and influence on people who don't know Jesus. That's the church whose body is dying from its own self-infliction.