on vulnerability

there is a call in the church, an informal one, for it's body to begin living life in a real and open way. it has been a criticism of the church by those on the outside looking in, of a "fake" or "hypocritical" showing of itself. throughout the 20th and now 21st century, the church has been accused of judgementalism, hypocrisy, elitism, closed-mindedness, etc...and sometimes rightly so. this isn't going to be a defense of the church, per say, but rather simply my thoughts on what might be needed to counteract the prevailing attitude. along with a need for the church to educate the world on what it is really about with regard to doctrine, practice, and right relationship with our Creator, the church is in need of a vulnerability of grace. here's what i mean by that....

a relationship with Christ is a relationship of change. it is a relationship which says, "that is who i was...and now this is who i am." without a change, without a way of looking at someone and being able to say, "that is what he was...and now here is what he is," then there is no way for us to see the change. there is no way to give a testimony of grace.

there is a reason we have the testimonies we have in scripture. in peter we see a man who fell to the bottom of deception in his denial of his association with Jesus. we saw an outright lie come from his lips three times. there were witnesses and a moment of guilt the remembrance of Jesus' words (Matthew 26: 69-75; John 18:25-27). then we see a little while later peter's moment with Jesus (John 21:15-17). peter, once a denier of Christ...now the leader of the followers of Jesus. and in paul we see a murderer. a man who stood by and gave his approval to the stoning of stephen. later, being met on the road to damascus, paul is confronted by Jesus, and we see in his life throughout the book of Acts and his letters, a life changed. both of these men, among others do no hide their sin. in their proclamation of Jesus and a relationship with him, the also proclaim who they were...and who they are now. we do not have in the faithful of God as told in a scripture a group of men and women who led lives of righteousness and perfection. in fact, it's quite the opposite. the testimony of scripture is that those who became faithful followers of God had to first come in their sin and then walk opposite of it. throughout their lives there was always an underlying story of who they were.

what i've seen

i have not seen overwhelming evidence in the church today that there is a discipline of vulnerability in it's leaders or followers. there are in some instances, but as a whole the church sets itself apart as an organization of the righteous. pastors and priests in pulpits are regarded as those on a pedestal higher than the normal church goer. it's a view that comes with the position....unless the leader makes it his prerogative to have a testimony of "this is who i was...and this is who i am." from the top down there needs to be a testimony of change. there needs to be a vulnerability of grace to the masses. "this is who i was...but because of grace, this is who i am." without the testimony, the call fails. and i don't mean a simplistic testimony of general sin because "all sin," rather i mean the vulnerability of peter and paul, of abraham and david.

the word "vulnerable" does not mean "openness through a veil." there is no room in "vulnerability" for sugar coating the ugly. the word "vulnerable" means being "capable of or susceptible to being wounded or hurt." there is in vulnerability the very real possibility that there could be pain: mental, emotional, spiritual...possibly even physical. we as christians must have this mindset in our testimonies. we must be open with who we are to the extent (yet within reason) of being willing to hurt for the grace that we profess.

why? because that is the very testimony of grace itself in the work of Jesus. the ultimate vulnerability as was demonstrated on the cross. Jesus, for the masses of sinful humanity, made himself completely vulnerable so that we may be able to say, "this is who i was...and because of grace, this is who i am." He mentally made Himself vulnerable to the point of sweating blood. He emotionally made himself vulnerable to the point of being abandoned by His closest and only friends. He spiritually made Himself vulnerable to the point that He had to say, "Father, why have you forsaken me?" and physically He made Himself vulnerable to the point of death...death by beating, torture, and crucifixion.

yet we, so often, cannot be like Him in our lives by doing the exact same. the call of the Christian has been sugar coated and cotton-candied out. for the church to move forward the way the church was intended to, we must individually and corporately take up the call to live vulnerably real lives.

"this is who i was...and because of grace, this is who i am now."