Chilling

"Do not be too quick to condemn the man who no longer believes in God: for it is perhaps your own coldness and avarice and mediocrity and materialism and selfishness that have chilled his faith." Thomas Merton

Pretty chilling. Or at least it should be. We have all been told that we should be careful how we act because people are watching. Unfortunately, as Christians they are also watching Christ as He is reflected in us both individually and corporately. Wednesday Night we talked about Acts and the crisis in the identity of Jews created by the inclusion of Gentiles in the body of believers. The erosion of distinctions that defined a people. Immediately it ocurred to me that we have returned to our distinctions of race, denomination, and class. We cluster in homogeneous groups and erect cultural barriers to keep out those who are different. Maybe they are a mode of dress, a style of worship, a restrictive theology, etc., but they all act as a fence around our group.

These distinctions and our isolation contribute to the problem of our witness by assuring that those different from us are always watching from without not knowing us intimately. Thus we are judged strictly on what our group position is percieved to be. I am again compelled to wonder if this is why Jesus focused on making disciples rather than forming a church. The institution gives the imprimatur of authority to our actions, when in fact the authority lies outside ourselves or the institution. The gospel emphasizes God's grace in light of our fraility. I wonder sometimes if the church is even capable of projecting the gospel because as an institution it magnifies our corruptibility by giving credence to our distancing ourselves from the hard sayings of Jesus. Perhaps it is better that we maintain the vulnerability of the individual and forsake the safety of the institution.

One has to wonder at God choosing such imperfect messengers.