He’s standing in the self-check-out line at Walmart plugging pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters from his children’s piggy banks into the cash register just to buy a few groceries. He has no job and has not been able to get one, but he doesn’t qualify for government programs and would not, on principle, take that support even if it were available. Where is the church?
Do you know who in the Body of Christ in your community is homeless … or about to be? Do you know who wakes up just a couple of hours after bedtime and cannot get back to sleep because of concerns about his financial provision? (Have you ever been in that situation yourself … or do you need to go through it so as to be sensitive to those who are now?)
What is the typical church response?
A family in need of food, clothing and housing is not provided for by the church but, instead, is referred to local government agencies where they are tracked, monitored, vaccinated, indoctrinated, and otherwise abused by Caesar. Oh, some are given food – day-old stuff that’s been discarded, too-big ocra, melon-size zucchini, wormy corn, moldy bread – that most church people wouldn’t feed to their dogs. See, God has always asked from us our first fruits – our best (I Cor. 16:2) – and the pattern He showed us in Acts 2 was for His ecclesia, His Body, to share out of their bounty with each other equally. Jesus spoke to just this thing in Matthew 25:40, in essence saying that our treatment of the down-and-out is our treatment of Him. And if the church would act like the Body of Christ, public welfare would be needed much less.
Poverty mindset in the church does not extend solely to matters of physical needs for living; it also encompasses a closed-mindedness as concerns equality in the Body concerning service and spiritual gifts.
A man or woman with a message from God is ignored or dismissed because he or she has not gone through seminary and gotten official church ordination to permit him or her to speak to the church. But the New Testament gives us NO – none, nada, zip – examples or command of “clergy” (other than, of course, the Pharisees and the Nicolaitans – preachers who loved to have the preeminence, who were to be avoided), nor any seminaries. In fact, Jesus’ disciples were all rabbi school rejects! Also, someone who has a need is often regarded as less qualified to speak, to lead, to propagate a Holy Spirit message because he is “needy” and, thus, obviously not qualified to speak to the goodness of God.
A would-be singer of special music is not permitted to stand before the church and sing before first being approved by the official music director. That is not God’s way. There is no room for prior restraint or judgment of anyone contributing to the Body in the I Cor. 14 “template” for gatherings together. But there is a cultural belief that our worship should always be “excellent,” and that gets defined according to cultural bias. But a more Jesus-like view would treat “cultural performances” no different than He did the widow who, casting in her two mites, gave all that she had, and even if it’s a “joyful noise,” it is music in God’s ears … and should be in ours as well.
The same extends to dress at church meetings. James 2:1-5 makes it very clear that how one dresses when believers assemble together, but if the guy in the suit gets more respect than the one in jeans and a tee shirt, well … read James.
The church is not the Body of Christ. Some of the Body of Christ may be involved there, but one’s involvement there constitutes no evidence of his actual relationship to the Body of Christ. Getting very clear on that critical point will eliminate a lot of confusion about why the church behaves the way that it does. But while there is church, and while at least some of the actual Body of Christ (ecclesia) are involved, the rest of the ecclesia should be concerned about how church behaviors tend to reflect on the ecclesia as a whole, particularly in contexts that do not understand that the one is not the other.
Be the Body of Christ, don’t be the church, but the church can be a great vehicle whereby the Body can better conduct Body business.
