Should the Church Abandon the church? Part 8

The Review...

We've been talking about the Church (as in the Bride of Christ), and Her amazing fascination with doing "church" (as in the typical things that everyone hates about organized religion). The argument that's running through my head is that although the Church is eternal, I wonder if She (the Church) should walk away from some things. These are things that She has come to be identified with, but those same things do not connect Her to Her purpose or original design. They have become distractions and a detriment to Her.

In Part 1, we talked about leadership in Christianity... how it was designed, and what it has become. In this, we looked at how if J. Edgar Hoover had the foresight to realize his FBI agents were likely to be corrupted as they began to pursue the Mafia, how much more so would God's wisdom look to protect His own.

In Part 2 , we stepped backwards a few thousand years and took an exhaustive and interesting (at least for me as I was writing it) look at the leadership of the Jewish church in Jesus days. It's a fascinating (again, at least for me) study of the day of Jesus's crucifixion with some surprising revelations that affect the decisions we have to make today.

In Part 3, we discussed line by line the historical miracles that had occured for thousands of years for the Jewish people, and how, at the time of Jesus, these miracles all just stopped, and what that represented as God began to shift His work from "organized religion" to working in the hearts of men. We ended with a quote from 1st Samuel, that the "Glory of the LORD has departed."

In Part 4, we jumped forward to the time of Martin Luther, the Great Reformer as he struggled to free his people from the chains of fear and bondage placed upon them once again by the very "church" that God had called to set men free. In this, I go to great lengths to say that all organized religion is inherintly flawed, and almost irredeemable. Thank God for my wife, Stacy, who pulled me back from that precipice, to bring greater clarity and balance to what I was trying to say. This section ends with a heartfelt thank you to the untold, unthanked, and under-appreciated Servants of Christ who wholeheartedly pursue their calling.

In Part 5, my views begin to mature a little, as my frustration with church leadership begins to simmer-down. We look at the Modern American Family, with all of it's screw ups. As I was writing this, I was beginning to re-realize (if that's even a word), that God is a redeemer. What I mean, is that God takes our broken things, and makes them even more beautiful than they were before we broke them. As we look at the Modern American Family, we begin to realize that maybe God's plan all along was to do just that... make our broken things beautiful. Maybe that was His plan with the Church, too. In this line of thinking, we jump into the boring begats in Matthew's Chapter 1, and begin to uncover a thread of understanding that God chooses not to hide our brokeness as we look at Tamar, the 1st of 4 women mentioned amongst all those guys in the 'begats'. Tamar's story would be banned from the bookshelf of any Christian bookstore I've ever been to. But, God chose to include it, and other's that we discuss in further discussions. Why would He highlight these women in the lineage of Jesus?

In Part 6, we look at 2nd and 3rd women of Matthew Chapter 1, Rahab and Ruth. This is a short (but fun to write) piece about how God continues to not only not hide scandal, but almost seems to point it out. In fact, the things that should disqualify us, He chooses to bless.

Most recently, in Part 7, we painfully look at the 4th woman from Matthew Chapter 1's lineage of Jesus, her name is Bathsheeba, and the story is about thr Great King David in one of his truly un-great moments.

And so, now, here we are...

What do the 4 women have to do with what we were talking about?


I started this Series with the intention of Scripturally proving that we should not be doing church like we do church. I intended to prove that "The Glory of the LORD" had departed, and that we were foolish to continue walking down this road.

But, like every other time I have looked at Scripture as a catalyst to change someone else, I found it changing me instead.

I can prove all the things I intended. But doing only that would be a lie. Because it is not all I discovered. I discovered (again), God's Grace. I discovered that God loves us. Just as we are.

Not because we're doing things right. Not  because we've got our stuff together. But, just because He chose to.

My wife is a crier. She is emotional, and empathetic. It is a wonderful quality that allows her to love so very freely. I, on the other hand, am not a crier. As such, sometimes, I have no clue why she's crying. It just doesn't make sense to me. You see, we're different. We balance each other. Sometimes, when she's crying, and I have a glimpse of understand as to what is going on in the incredibly complex heart and mind of that woman... on those rare occasions of enlightenment, I am able to do something miraculous.

I hold her.

I can't fix the situation. I can't make things all better. But, I can be me. Steady, and strong. I can wrap her in my arms, and let her know that I love her, and that things will be okay.

It makes me feel manly.

Sometimes I wonder if our weakness make God feel Godly.

I wonder if when we're broken, and stumbling... I wonder if He relishes the opportunity to show off a little bit...

To love us unconditionally...

To extend ridiculous grace...

To bring value to the valueless...

To be Himself...

*AHEM*... and so what does the 4 women have to do with this?

Well, in my infinite arrogance, as I strove to point out exactly what we were doing wrong... completely embarassed by our stupidity, I realized that God wasn't embarassed at all.

He refused to hide those stories. He POINTED THEM OUT! And chose to birth His Son into that lineage.

A girl pretends to be a prostitute and has her Father in laws babies (twins in fact). She deceives him and conceives, because he has been lying to her, and the lineage of Jesus continues towards Him.

A real prostitute hides men in her home on the wall of Jericho. Though the wall falls down in the famous battle, she is remembered, and bears a son to Salmon named Boaz who becomes King David's Great-Grandfather.

This same Boaz marries a Moabite woman, and birth's David's GrandFather, though by law, her family should have been excluded for 10 generations.

And a beautiful young woman named Bathsheeba is stolen from her husband by that same Great King David. David tries to fool her husband into thinking their child is not illegitimate, but when that fails, David has him killed, and Solomon is born.

Listen to me. No matter what you've done. No matter how bad you've screwed up. God is not ashamed of you. He can make it beautiful.

Church, listen to me. No matter what we've done, and we have done some really bad stuff (think the Crusades... or the hiding of pedophiles Priests...). I am not trying to lessen the incredible pain and destruction that this disgusting sin has caused. Only God could redeem things like that. Only God...

But, He can. And, He will.

That is why He included their 4 names, and that is why I told you their 4 stories...

Because God is Godly.