A few years ago I was engaged in a battle of heart and mind. I was struggling with the church – the body of Christ. You need to know that when I use the word “church,” it means the church catholic – all expressions of the church throughout the world. I was disappointed and cynical, and began to seriously doubt the present relevance and future significance of the church. This battle was fierce and prolonged. Even now skirmishes continue to erupt. One day, while driving and contemplating these issues, I prayed,
“Lord, I used to believe that you governed and guided your church. I don’t believe that anymore. I now believe that you have entrusted your church to men and women who are broken, corrupt, and full of themselves. In spite of everything we do to grieve Your Spirit, the amazing thing to me is that every now and then, You manage to break through and do something remarkable, something to demonstrate Your grace and love.”
I am reminded that the people of Israel, although the covenant people of God, often embraced idolatry and immorality. The prophets often portrayed Israel as a shameless whore. Even so, she was loved and redeemed by Yahweh. Likewise, the apostles often rebuked the church. Paul declared in exasperation, “It is actually reported that there is immorality among you, and immorality of such a kind as does not exist even among the Gentiles” (1 Corinthians 5:1). James charged, “You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God?” (James 4:4). Like Israel, the church is sometimes found to be playing the whore. History, both ancient and recent, is full of examples where the church has miserably failed in her mission of love and righteousness.
An ancient Bishop, Irenaeus of Lyons (2nd century), wrote:
…our faith; which, having been received from the Church, we do preserve, and which always, by the Spirit of God, renewing its youth, as if it were some precious deposit in an excellent vessel, causes the vessel itself containing it to renew its youth also. For this gift of God has been entrusted to the Church, as breath was to the first created man, for this purpose, that all the members receiving it may be vivified; and the [means of] communion with Christ has been distributed throughout it, that is, the Holy Spirit, the earnest of incorruption, the means of confirming our faith, and the ladder of ascent to God. … For where the Church is, there is the Spirit of God; and where the Spirit of God is, there is the Church, and every kind of grace; but the Spirit is truth (Against Heresies 5.24.1).
Irenaeus wrote these words as the church of his generation was struggling with issues of heresy and unity. Even so, he passionately believed in her message of redemption. He was convinced that although the church would suffer from the corruption of this present age, the Holy Spirit would continuously work to renew the church throughout the generations. The Holy Spirit preserves and renews the faith of the church. Renewal movements are to be anticipated as the continuing ministry of the Holy Spirit.
Centuries later, Giovanni Boccaccio wrote The Decameron (14th century), a collection of medieval tales. The second novella of the collection tells the story of the conversion Abraham the Jew. Abraham traveled to Rome to learn of the Christian faith. There he discovered an institution corrupt to its very core. Abraham declared his disgust with the church, and ironically, his conversion to the Faith.
“I think God owes them all an evil recompense: I tell you, so far as I was able to carry my investigations, holiness, devotion, good works or exemplary living in any kind was nowhere to be found in any clerk; but only lewdness, avarice, gluttony, and the like, and worse, if worse may be, appeared to be held in such honour of all, that (to my thinking) the place is a centre of diabolical rather than of divine activities. To the best of my judgment, your Pastor, and by consequence all that are about him devote all their zeal and ingenuity and subtlety to devise how best and most speedily they may bring the Christian religion to nothing and banish it from the world. And because I see that what they so zealously endeavour does not come to pass, but that on the contrary your religion continually grows, and shines more and more clear, therein I seem to discern a very evident token that it, rather than any other, as being more true and holy than any other, has the Holy Spirit for its foundation and support. For which cause, whereas I met your exhortations in a harsh and obdurate temper, and would not become a Christian, now I frankly tell you that I would on no account omit to become such. Go we then to the church, and there according to the traditional rite of your holy faith let me receive baptism.”
In Boccaccio’s story, Abraham converts to the Faith in spite of the church’s every effort to subvert her own mission. His reason for converting sounds a lot like Irenaeus. Abraham was able to discern the Holy Spirit as the support and life of the church.
The truth is that the church has never been without controversy. The gospel is offensive and foolish, but it is salvation to those who believe (1 Corinthians 1:22-24). The Romans accused the early Christians of being atheist and cannibals; atheist because they refused to honor the gods, and cannibals because they consumed the flesh and blood of Christ. The church has caused a great deal of controversy – heresy, schism, sex scandals, political intrigue, and warfare.
Many unbelievers learn of the history of the church and proclaim its faith to be oppressive and evil. Many believers learn of the history of the church and turn a blind eye. Others try to remove themselves from the historic church and insist that the true church is not the church of corrupt institutions or lukewarm denominations. In that spirit, the church has become a company of protestors. Protestants have protested the Catholics; Anabaptists have protested the magisterial reformers; and Pentecostals have protested everybody. We, the church catholic, are broken and schismatic, heretical and self-righteous – a poor representation of the image of Jesus Christ.
So, in the spirit of Irenaeus and Boccaccio, I pray for another season of renewal from the Holy Spirit. But renewal will not come from protest. Renewal will come only through repentance. When Isaiah stood in the presence of Yahweh, he cried out, “Woe is me, for I am ruined! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Isaiah 6:5). I cannot separate myself from the sins of the church. To protest is to feign righteousness. The only option is “…repent and return, so that your sins may be wiped away, in order that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord” (Acts 3:19).
If you have read this and believe me to be cynical, you have misread my intent. I love the church and I treasure the Faith and Tradition she seeks to embody. With Paul I proclaim, “I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God” (Romans 1:16). And with Paul, I envision…
Christ… is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body… Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless (Ephesians 5:23-27).
