“Speak softly and carry a big stick,” goes the African proverb. \u00a0I think of it every time I jog past this sign near my house. \u00a0Because if there were ever a place where many of us have felt like we must “speak softly” and “carry a big stick,” it is in of all places “church.”<\/p>\n
Sunday mornings can quickly become our “church zone” days. \u00a0In the “church zone,” we are careful to self-edit. \u00a0We put on nice clothes to look good for others even if we don’t feel good inside. \u00a0We put on pleasant expressions to hide the brokenness underneath. \u00a0We use “Christian” language even when it sounds awkward or forced. \u00a0We follow all of the religious cues. \u00a0We pretend to ourselves and those around us that because we’re in here, “in church,” we are somehow different or better than the world outside our doors.<\/p>\n
If truth be told, many of us who have tried to be more transparent in the “church zone” have often been hurt. When we have honestly sought to live into the biblical notion that we, the church, really are<\/em> “brothers and sisters” in Christ, we have been shafted. \u00a0When we have been real about our struggles, we have been ganged up on.<\/p>\n Then there are those who, in seeking privacy during their times of deepest affliction, are shocked to read about themselves on the front page of the church newsletter, or become against their will the juicy subject of the next prayer meeting. \u00a0All in the name of so-called “Christian” love. \u00a0No wonder that many of us instinctively look for the “big stick,” whatever that may be: we are looking to protect ourselves from further violations.<\/p>\n Sometimes I meet Christians who while fully aware of the church’s brokenness would prefer to treat it as if it were a big, family secret. “We wouldn’t want non-Christians to hear these things” goes this line of reasoning, as if once a Christian, all of the mess of our lives, our sin, our imperfections, and our “issues,” should no longer exist. \u00a0As if once we step through the doors of a church building or join a Bible study, we are somehow only saints and no longer sinners. \u00a0Maybe the fear is that if we let the cat out of the bag, our lives won’t adequately witness to the transforming Good News that Jesus loves us and gave Himself for us.<\/p>\n This is a natural fear. \u00a0We want to believe that our relationship with Christ has really changed us. \u00a0Has meant something. And we’re afraid to look at all of those places where it has yet to.<\/p>\n And this fear comes from a place of good intentions. \u00a0Those of us who love Jesus want the world to know how great He is. We want our lives to reflect the difference he makes. \u00a0We don’t want the world to see how Christians, when we get together, are often just messed-up, broken people with issues. \u00a0Just another batch of shared humanity. \u00a0No more. \u00a0No less.<\/p>\n But the reality is that church is chock-full of sinners. \u00a0Messed-up people all of us. \u00a0Sorely in need of God’s grace each of us. \u00a0And telling ourselves or others otherwise and keeping the cat in the bag as if it were a shameful secret, is not just unhelpful. \u00a0It is bad theology.<\/p>\n So, while telling the truth about this reality can be hard, I suspect that in the end it is a whole lot more life-saving than the alternative. One theologian who told the truth was the fourth-century theologian, St. Augustine: \u00a0“The man who enters [church]\u00a0is bound to see drunkards, misers, tricksters, gamblers, adulterers, fornicators, people wearing amulets, assiduous clients of sorcerers, astrologers. \u00a0He must be warned that the same crowds that press into the churches on Christian festivals also fill the theaters on pagan holidays,” Malcolm Muggeridge, in A Third Testament: <\/em>\u00a0A Modern Pilgrim Explores the Spiritual Wanderings of Augustine, Blake, Pascal, Tolstoy, Bonhoeffer, Kierkegaard,<\/em>\u00a0quotes Augustine as saying. \u00a0(The one thing lacking about this wonderful book is that it does not include citations, so if any of you can recall which of Augustine’s works this comes from, I’d be appreciative.)<\/p>\n When we tell the truth, we become free- or at least freer<\/em>. \u00a0We become free to see ourselves not as Christians but as human beings desperately in need of God’s grace. \u00a0Grace embodied not just in that one moment when we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior and thought everything would change, but every day. Every moment. \u00a0And we free ourselves to share with others the unvarnished gift of the Good News: that Christ loved us while we were yet still sinners. \u00a0Not after we got our lives in order- because then He would have been waiting around for, literally, forever. But before then. \u00a0And always. \u00a0This is Good News. \u00a0For the very reason that it tears down our “church zones.”<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If you’re up for a good laugh and some provocative theology, you can find other strange, funny and intriguing church signs here: www.beliefnet.com\/JesusDaily\/Features\/Church-Signs-Across-America.aspx<\/a> and http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/JesusDaily\/Features\/Fun-Chuch-Signs.aspx<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" “Speak softly and carry a big stick,” goes the African proverb. \u00a0I think of it every time I jog past this sign near my house. \u00a0Because if there were ever a place where many of us have felt like we must “speak softly” and “carry a big stick,” it is in of all places “church.”…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":461,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,126,94,63],"tags":[127,128,2457,129],"class_list":["post-223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-church","category-ecclesiology","category-religion","category-sin","tag-church-signs","tag-funny-church-signs","tag-sin","tag-st-augustine"],"yoast_head":"\n