AND
ON THIS ROCK I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH
As Jesus spoke these prophetic words to Peter
could he have anticipated the little congregation in Bealeton known as PALS
Church? Not long after speaking these
words the crucified and risen Jesus “was taken up before their very eyes, and a
cloud hid him from their sight”, according to Acts 1:9. We celebrate his ascension into heaven forty
days after his resurrection on Ascension Day, May 17, this year.
So what kind of church did Jesus build and
his disciples organize? John Stott,
writing in his book, Authentic Christianity, observes that, in harsh
reality:
“the church is us – a disheveled
rabble of sinful, fallible, bickering,
squabbling, stupid, shallow Christians, who constantly fall short of God’s
ideal, and often fail even to come close to it!”
Wow! What a description! Couldn’t possibly be describing PALS Church,
could he? Most likely he had in mind the
church of Jesus’ own day – the temple – and its unfaithful leadership, as he
said, “my house will be called a house of prayer for all nations, but you have
made it a den of robbers!” But truth be
known, this, sadly, is the perception of many today as they look at the church,
at “organized religion” at us.
Whether PALS Church
or the Jerusalem temple, is this what Jesus had in mind for his church when he
said, “the gates of hell will not overcome it”?
Or did he rather
envision, as Stott also describes the ideal church:
“the church is the
most marvelous new creation of God. It
is the new community of Jesus, enjoying a multi-racial, multi-national and
multi-cultural harmony which is unique in history and in contemporary
society. The church is even the ‘new
humanity’, the vanguard of a redeemed and renewed human race. It is a people who spend their earthly lives
(as they will also spend eternity) in the loving service of God and of others.”
Now there is a noble
and beautiful ideal! Wouldn’t you think
this is more what Jesus had in mind as he left the Word and the Sacraments in
the hands of his disciples, and of …… us?
On a scale from 1 to
10, where would you place us? How close
do you think we are to the high ideal, or to the harsh reality, as Stott has
described those two poles? Can both
descriptions fit any given congregation?
Could both descriptions fit the disciples?
Maybe the more
important question is, how can we move closer to the
ideal, to Jesus’ vision of this “most marvelous new creation of God”? As we continue through these Sundays of the
Easter season, let us all be in prayer together that the resurrected Christ will
fill us with his loving power to carry on his ministry of love, reconciliation,
and hope, in his Holy Name.
“Have no fear, little flock … For the Father has chosen to give you the
Kingdom!”