Pentecost 16                               Matt. 18:15-20, Rom. 13:8-14                              9/4/05

                                                       “The Imperfect Church ”

I’d like you to take a minute – just a minute – to close your eyes and imagine the perfect church.  What would characterize such a church?  What word or phrase would best describe it for you?

(Pause)

Now, please give me that word or phrase (possible starters:  Bible centered, friendly, hospitable, growing, caring, loving, forgiving...)

They are all great descriptors.  If you find such a church, with all those characteristics, let me know.  I’d like to seek a call there.  But then...maybe not.  Someone wrote a poem about the perfect church:

"The Perfect Church "

If you should find the perfect church

Without one fault or smear,

For goodness sake don't join that church

You'd spoil the atmosphere.

If you should find the perfect church

Where all anxieties cease,

Then pass it by, lest joining it

You spoil the masterpiece.

If you should find the perfect church

Then don't you ever dare

To tread upon such holy ground,

You'd be a misfit there.

But since no perfect church exists,

Made of perfect men,

Let's cease on looking for that church,

And love the church we're in.

Of course it's not the perfect church,

That's simple to discern.

But you and I an all of us

Could cause the tide to turn.

What fools we are to flee the past

In that unfruitful search

To find, at last, where problems loom

God proudly builds his church.

There’s much truth to this poem.  God builds His church on imperfect people and since God loves His Church, I think, His must be a “Perfectly Imperfect Church. 

Certainly the Church of Matthew ’s day must have been pretty imperfect.  Otherwise there would have been no need for all this talk about how to deal with people who have offended.  You see, either Jesus was speaking for the future or the writer of Matthew looked back at how Jesus dealt with people and put the Gospel’s admonition together from that.  Our lesson for today was certainly not intended for the time when Jesus spoke.  There was no church until after Jesus’ death and resurrection. 

Obviously, from the start that church had problems and conflicts that the people of the church had to deal with, and we use the words of Jesus as directions for dealing with conflict to this day.

Even though we can never be the “ Perfect Church ”, we can work to make the “ Imperfect Church ” as perfectly imperfect as possible.  Let’s consider then three characteristics that we as God’s Church can work on, based on our lessons for today.

First, the church is to fulfill the Law.  All too often churches try to do this by being legalistic, some even to the point of basing salvation on how perfect people are.   The church is not meant to fulfill the Law by trying to be perfect though.  Being the Church is not about a bunch of rules that everyone must obey.  Fulfilling God’s “Law” is not about “should’s”, “must’s”, “ought’s”, and “don’ts”.

Instead, notice what St. Paul says, “...the one who loves another fulfills the law.”  Now, as you know, this love is not about passion or affection or even good feelings.  The love that God requires of us as His Church (and members of it) and which fulfills the Law, is about our actions and intentions.  Even if our fellow member or neighbor has the personality of Ghenghis Khan or behaves like King Kong, we are to treat that person well.  We are to avoid doing anything that might harm that person and instead do our best to help the person.  If we do this we fulfill not just the letter of the law, but its spirit as well.

Second, we are told to “put on the Lord Jesus Christ”.  Putting on Christ is not just donning a pious cloak or acting like we are perfect and righteous.  Putting on Christ is putting Christ first.  All of those sins of darkness that are listed are sins of self-centeredness.  The list could be added to and include missing church because of being out late the night before, complaining about how long the service runs and thus cuts into our Sunday plans, insisting on having our way simply because change makes us uncomfortable, or increasing a false sense of power by making trouble for someone else.  All these sins are the ego or flesh indulging in what pleases the sinful nature.  

 When we put on Christ, we stop seeking what pleases ourselves and instead seek what pleases God, just as Christ did  Putting on Christ also means seeing others as Christ sees them.  Have you ever thought about what it would be like to see as Christ sees.  If I could do that I wouldn’t see that sister of the faith as someone who just always seems to say the most hurtful or annoying things.  I’d see a person who desperately needs love and tries to hide that need by pushing others away.  I wouldn’t see my brother of the faith as that domineering son of a gun.  I’d see a person who feels powerless and needs to learn how the love of God gives true power.  I wouldn’t see that kid who seems to be out of control and blame bad parenting.  I’d see a child of God who longs for attention and needs to be helped to seek fulfillment in a more acceptable way.

And we, individually, wouldn’t have to feel alone in trying to be like Christ by loving as He does, because we would see that we are part of a community.  Those same words of Christ that tell us what to do when a fellow member offends us also shows us that we are to be part of a redemptive community.  We are all in this together and are meant to give/receive support from each other in living out our roles in the imperfect church.

I really like the image conveyed by the term “redemptive community”.  We don’t realize it, but individualism is a very recent idea.  Until sometime in the 20^th Century, being in community was the priority.  In past times an individual could not exist outside a community and in fact, being put out of community was almost a death sentence.  People had a healthy regard for interdependence and thus having a harmonious community was primary.  Certainly this was true of the early church where the culture was often anti-Christian.  And I would maintain that it is just as important in today’s culture.

Sadly, we seen this lack of a sense of community in New Orleans this week as people have all too often just done what benefited themselves and totally ignored the needs of the neighbor.  Our culture all to often alienates people, puts them down, makes them feel insignificant, preaches an every man for himself view of life.  A church community, even an imperfect church community, can help people realize their value, celebrate their gifts and help them see that they are important members of an even larger community of believers.  

The community is meant to be redemptive too.  This is why Matt. 18 is so important to being the Church.  When a member acts in a disruptive or injurious way and action is taken by the church to contain that behavior, the intention is not to reject the person.  Rather, it is recognized that by continuing in a particular sin and refusing to acknowledge it or repent the person is selling him or herself to evil. 

Therefore the actions recommended in these verses are meant to get the person back on track, have them repent (or turn around) and rejoin the community.  Even ousting or excommunicating a person is meant to get them back into community.  It is supposed to be a kind of shock therapy that makes the offender see the sin being committed.  This ultimately improves the spiritual health of the community and the individual.  

Matt. 18 is to be redemptive for the imperfect church as well.  It is administered in deep humility by people who recognize that they too sin and fall short of the glory of God.  They use the experience to examine themselves both individually and as community to see where they have failed.  They too repent of their sin and recommit to dedicating their imperfect church to doing God’s will, loving one another and seeing the world through the eyes of Christ whom they have put on.

It would certainly be nice to have that perfect church that we each envision.  It would be great to be part of a church that when disasters, like Katrina, strike gathers together immediately to reach out to victims.  It would be great to be part of a church where you never hear an unkind word.  It would be great to be part of a church where the people can’t get enough Bible study.  It would be great to be part of a church where every member engages in a life of discipleship. (Those are some of my images of the perfect church) 

It wouldn’t be the real living church that Christ founded though.  Christ founded a real live imperfect church on real live imperfect people.  As such we seek God’s mercy and grace, and know that He will bless our efforts to be as perfectly imperfect as we can be.  Let’s be a divinely imperfect church.  Amen