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by Demi Prentiss
Scot McKnight commented recently on Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s Life Together and the compelling question of whether we love the church for what it could be, or for what it actually is.
To quote from McKnight’s March 4 Substack post:
… [U]ntil we realize that the eucharist table is at the front of the church under the cross – [that] those who come into the fellowship are “cracked Eikons” in need of grace and healing – we will not comprehend what the church is. Eucharist is for those in need of grace, not for those in need of a medal for their heroic faith.
Leaving the church because it does not meet unrealistic expectations is failing to understand what a church is; we have a church because we have failed to meet God’s expectations. Failed expectations, then, are the foundation for the church and the reason for its existence. Leaving the church because it does not meet our expectations is to create a church for ourselves. It is, if I may be so bold, idolatry.
The Episcopal Church is preparing for its General Convention in June. As in most organizations governed by legislative bodies, in spite of being living members of the Body of Christ, the church is bringing conflicting opinions and competing lofty goals to the meeting. Contentious issues are breeding competing claims as to what the church should be and what “wins” will bring the organization closer to those aspirations. There are many who see General Convention as beneath the church’s dignity, or as a waste of time and money and energy, or as boring theatre.
I love General Convention. I love the push and pull of competing priorities, and the hard work of collaborating and building consensus in order to make progress toward being the church God calls us to be. We come closer to that calling only by incremental steps. Progress is almost always slower than we’d like, and sometimes we fall short or misdirect our efforts. Sometimes circumstances shift, and our last incremental step turns out to have been misdirected. (Or perhaps the step we took 37 steps ago!)
It can be a struggle to offer grace to one another. Often it’s hard to remember that nearly all of us are striving to remain connected to the True Vine. Too frequently we miss the mark. Mercifully, the Holy Spirit has been known to show up to further our work.
Please, in the coming days, pray for our church – both the Episcopal branch of the Jesus Movement and the 2,000-year-old Body of Christ. Pray for more love, less confusion; more abiding in Christ, less need to control; more joy, less fear. And in the ways you can, offer your gifts and your graces to further the work God has given us.
O God of unchangeable power and eternal light: Look
favorably on your whole Church, that wonderful and sacred
mystery; by the effectual working of your providence, carry
out in tranquillity the plan of salvation; let the whole world
see and know that things which were cast down are being
raised up, and things which had grown old are being made
new, and that all things are being brought to their perfection
by him through whom all things were made, your Son Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen. (BCP, p. 291)