It
is fashionable in our age to criticize the Church, but what does the Lord of
the Church have to say about his own?
“Who is this who looks down like the dawn,
beautiful as the moon, bright as the sun, terrible as an army with banners?”[i]
Who
is the Accuser who would say otherwise?
We
who are the Church, the Body of Christ, have accepted the Devil’s assessment of
the Church and have been led with a ring through our nose into the attack on
ourselves. Immediately comes to mind the
accusation that the Church is the only army that shoots its wounded. Oh, really?
I
note that in the usual form of this accusation that the Church is referred to
as an ‘army’ that shoots its wounded.
That accidentally acknowledges that the Church is an army on the front
line of a battle. The world does not
take that seriously. It would never do
to admit that the Church is involved in the global warfare between good and
evil. That is so much out of favour that
in some places those called by the name of Christ won’t even sing Onward
Christian Soldiers.
What
must be considered is that the world is in the Church and the Church like any
human organization has within it people of divided loyalties. The Accuser holds up the shining mirror of
the Church in the radiant glory yet to come and says, “See! You are hypocrites; you do not live up to
your image.” Of course not! The image is for the future, it is the wrong
image and the Enemy would sell us a subtle deception.
What
is the correct image? We are not yet the
glorified Church, but we are a Church in transition; an imperfect Church made
up of imperfect people. Once we were lost,
but now we are found. We are a communion
of sinners in the process of transformation.
We are a blood washed band on a pilgrimage to the Promised Land. That is what so enrages the Devil.
Are
people wounded by the Church? Yes,
insofar as the world is in the Church, and the Church is in the world. There are tremendous flaws within the Church
because of the humanity of the Church.
One
of the reasons the world hates the Church is because in the Church the world
sees its own mirror image, and more than that it sees its mirror image in the
process of redemption. The world is
threatened by the demonstration in the Church that change is possible, that
salvation and transformation can be seen in the ongoing salvation history of
the Church and its individual people.
It
is the image of a glorious Church in transformation from the kingdom of
darkness to the kingdom of Light, and in fury the Enemy cries out, “How dare
you say that salvation and change is possible?”
From his perspective that wrecks all!
The Church in this world, already beginning to reflect the glory of God,
is a serious affront to the world, the flesh, and the Devil; because is true
that even as the Church beholds the Light it is in the process of being
transformed into Light.
The
vision is for the future, but it is already in process now. Therefore the Devil cannot stand it.
And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem,
coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her
husband. And I heard a loud voice from
the throne saying, "Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will
dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them
as their God. He will wipe away every
tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be
mourning nor crying nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed
away."[ii]
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