just about a week ago, a friend posed this question, "what is the Church here for?" simple, to the point, and too complex to digest. i gave an answer, in my mind satisfactorily, but since then it has been ever present on my thoughts throughout the past week. my answer, "to be salt and light in the world."
it's a good answer because all i really did was quote the bible. but it's an answer that has haunted me because i became increasingly aware that i wasn't sure if i could fill in all the holes that it left. sure, no one answer can be complete. outside of just saying "Jesus," what answer can we give that is not lacking in some respect or another? but it's been on my mind and heart to at least attempt and answer, a more complete one, so at the very least i myself can move forward as i try to find my place in the church, world, and community in which i live.
so, here goes...(this is from the mind of a confessed simpleton on these matters....still trying to figure it all out. there's stuff missing....but i feel this to be the heart of the matter)
growing up the church was our place of worship, our place of outreach, our place of service, and our home away from home. it was on the corner of 5th and wood and over time grew to 4 buildings. pastors, ministries, events and services, it was what i knew to be "church." it wasn't until much later that i realized that the church was a living, breathing organism that was growing, learning, falling, getting back up, serving, living....it was very much the collective version of a normal human life. only, it was a group. a group of millions that was one.
the church has had it's moments....good and bad. from the brutality of the crusades to the height of the reformation, from the early church's hard-line stance on heresy to the late church's embracing of it. our members have fallen from great heights (i can bear testimony) and our members have lived lives of service to our God....jonathan edwards, john calvin, john wesley, charles h. spurgeon, st. francis of assisi, st. augustine, and the list goes on and on. but what is it that marks us? what is it that screams to the world, "we are the church of the living God!"?
at the beginning of His ministry, Christ proclaimed the kingdom of God. He said that it was near (Mark 14.15) and that man's response was to be repentance and belief. repentance from sin, and a belief in Jesus....the Son of God. Messiah. King.
Jews at the time, and to this day, were looking for Messiah...the chosen one. He was to be the son of david. david, until the time of Messiah, was hailed as the king of kings, the greatest to have lived. Messiah would take up that name, King of kings, Lord of lords, and bear it like no other, not even David himself. when Jesus came, he hailed Himself the chosen one. King. Lord. Messiah. the kingdom of God had come, and so had it's king. like the arthurian legend centuries later, Jesus was the King who came to save a nation from the tyranny of its enemies. as was promised.
only, Jesus had other plans. instead of freeing Israel from the tyranny of Rome, it's militant enemy, Jesus proclaimed that He had come to save them from their real enemy....sin. "the kingdom of God has come, repent (turn from the real enemy and follow the real kingdom) and believe!" the Jews were supposed to get this. the slavery of sin and its freedom (exodus from egypt).....baptism and passing through the waters (the red sea)....it was what they had lived and known for thousands of years, now truly come to pass. a real defeat of the real enemy that bulls and goats could not cover through the sacrificial system. but they didn't, and they still seek.
but what of those who did hear and follow? who are they, what are they to do? they are the church and Jesus admonishes them to do many things. "go, make disciples", "be holy as I am holy," "be the salt of the earth, and a light on a hill."
as the church we are to be set apart from the world (this is what it means to be holy), not perfect, not sin free, but holy. the church is different from the world and we are to look different: in our actions, in our attitudes, in our desires, in our goals, in our families, in our personal relationships. our lives should simply speak, "Jesus." that word may not always come out, but the meaning is the same. people will see grace, mercy, justice, and above all love.. the world will see a family loving each other and those around it. it will see a people devoted to something other than themselves.
how do we do this? how do we set ourselves apart? we make disciples. "go, make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them (there's the going through water out of slavery) in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit." (Matthew 28:19) disciples are in a different kingdom and need to learn what it's like to live in that kingdom. a kingdom of grace. a kingdom of mercy. a kingdom of love. it is a "come as you are" kingdom, but once here things change. repentance happens, lives transform, the image of Christ takes on meaning and identification in the Church comes to life. the church needs to be about teaching it's citizens how to live in it. it needs to make priority of making followers of Jesus who are salt, and light.
salt is a preservative and a flavor enhancer. it lasts when everything around it is bad and it takes what is bland and gives it life for the palate. the christian does the same. it is preserved when sin abounds, when evil is everywhere, and when death seems all the rage. it also gives a life and taste to an otherwise dead world. sin is gross, despicable, and upsetting to the stomach. the salty christian is the flavor to a bland world. "salt is good; but if the salt becomes unsalty, with what will you make it salty again?" (Mark 9:50) the church must ensure the saltiness of its members....without salt, the church is useless. true, there are those who will turn and run desiring no more to be salty, and instead run after more fleeting and desirable flavors that do not last. but the church must rise up underneath them, be strong in the midst of those who turn away, and continue to nourish, flavor, and salt its members.
light. it shines in dark places. and any light, in any dark place, makes the darkness go away. the church is not to hide itself in the caverns of its buildings. it must make itself visible to all who can see it. the church is not a building on the corner, it is a myriad of tiny lights who together illumine the darkness of this fallen world. "you are the light of the world, a city on a hill cannot be hidden." (Matthew 5:14) our light must be visible. it must be in communities and workplaces, golf courses and classrooms, birthday parties and bars. but the key, the most important thing, is that if we are to be light then we cannot be darkness! obvious, right? then we should, as the church, be keeping each other in the light by actively keeping each other out of darkness. this does two things: 1) it makes us shine where there is no light and 2) it keeps us salty. if we are to be a difference in this world we have to be these two things. if we are truly to bring glory to the God that we say deserves all glory then we must tell the world of our King and do it by representing Him in the world.
we do that with salt and light.
everything else follows: ministry to the homeless flows out of the love that Christ had for the afflicted and outcast.....we do this by being like Him. ministry to those in addiction flows from the love that Jesus showed to drunkards....we do this by being like Him. ministry to the sick flows from a heart that healed too many to count.....we do this by being like Him.
how do we become more like Him? "let us draw near [to Christ] with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water (out of slavery, again). let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering....and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds" (hebrews 10.23-24, italics mine). we do it by pushing on without evil, by holding fast to Him whom we have believed, and we spur each other on to love and good deeds.
fleshing it out looks different from community to community....but in the end it should look the same.....
"the church is the representation of the Kingdom of God on earth, His representative to the world by virtue of it's being salt and light and in so being brings Glory to God and draws the world to Him."
