Who is the Church?

In John 17, Jesus prays one of His longest prayers—that for the unity of the Church to be identical to the unity between the Father and the Son. It also seems to be the one the Father has most likely (as far as appearances go) answered with a resounding “No.”

Skeptics have for centuries cited various divisions, sects, and denominations within Christendom as evidence against its veracity. I’ve always felt that these ‘divisions’ were like the various organs of a body, in accord with Paul’s descriptions of the Church being one Body with different parts, but unified in purpose…just seemingly suffering from some sort of auto-immune disease caused by human nature and the actions of the Adversary.

The Church and Sex

A friend posted the following link on the ubiquitous facebook:  “$28-Billion-Crime: New film shows the dark connection between sex addiction and sex trafficking.” I had to really think through whether and how to cover this deep of a subject without diluting it by overhype or platitudes. The topic of sex and sexual sin is both over- and under-exposed in the Church. Because the topic seems so private, it can be hard to realize the global implications of one’s personal choices.

C.S. Lewis put the topic of lust and pornography in his typically unique way by comparing it to gluttony. He described both hunger and the sex drive as natural God-given aspects of being corporeally human, yet, we would think it quite odd for someone to drop a coin in a machine to have pictures of a roast turkey or ice cream or pizza pop up in a titillating fashion for a few seconds before disappearing until the arrival of the next coin. Such a person would rightly be viewed as mentally unstable or not quite right in the head, needing professional help. Why would we consider porn any different?

Illegitimate Representatives

We watched much of the webcast of The Response today and I was thrilled with the 30-35 thousand turnout. The best message to me was from Tony Evans. He compared the Church to NFL officials.

“There are three teams on a football field. The third team works for the commissioner and must follow his rulebook. If this team (the officials) start siding with either of the battling teams or start listening to the cheers or jeers from the stands, they are no longer following their leader and have ‘illegitimized’ themselves.”

Which is Responsible for More Evil, the Church or Atheism?

The last several days have been inspired by comments on the Greta Christina blog post that inspired February’s “Unlikely Bedfellows” post here on TSR. In some of her responses to readers’ comments, she discusses various arguments for and against both faith and atheism. While I passionately disagree with much of what she says and supports, I respect her stated desire to have rational discussion on the merits of different worldviews.

She takes issue with certain classic Christian arguments about atheism, such as more evil has been committed by atheists than the Church, and responds that it is the other way around.

As I thought about the topic, I realized it is a pathetic argument from either direction.

Alone

One stereotype of college faculty is that of a solitary introvert, socially awkward, and so on. While for many, research is collaborative, we do tend to spend an awful lot of our time at work by ourselves, and even when in a group setting, it is often lecturing before a class or leading a group meeting—in short, a time where we are still set apart from the majority of people in the room. Whether we like it this way or not, there are some dangers of which we should be aware and actively circumvent.

Carrying Culture Too Far

Today I met a lovely postdoc who is an international Fulbright scholar at a major university. She is working with a professor who happens to originally hail from her native country. There is a surprising bit of friction because the professor apparently perceives her as competition rather than a colleague. While this occurs sometimes in the US, it is fairly rare, but in this woman’s country it is fairly common. So there is no shortage in irony in this situation.

One of the things I love about universities is how cosmopolitan they truly are:  folks from the globe over coming together in scholarly pursuits, sharing and studying a world of knowledge and culture, ideally in harmony. All cultures have their weak spots as they are composed of fallen human beings, but it is still a shame when those weaknesses survive the transfer to a new environment, even though it should be expected.

When these rough spots arise, ideally the egalitarian environment of the university helps resolve them. This should be the hallmark of the Church, yet universities are more known for ‘inclusiveness’ and Christians known for ‘divisiveness.’ Both are stereotypes in every sense of the word. As Christian faculty, we have the opportunity to be peacemakers in both cultures, and from there affect many more.

“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.” Proverbs 27:17

“Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God.” Matthew 5:9

SDG

Plumb Luck

Praise God from whom all blessings ‘flow’! The leak is fixed and water is flowing in its appointed courses. The experience also shows the church in action. I emailed my pastor and some friends last night with the situation asking if anyone knew a plumber or if one was in the church. My pastor replied this morning that there was a plumber in the church, but he was on his way back from Colorado. I called him and he referred me to another company who came within just a few hours.

Turns out, modern plumbing involves a plastic pipe with brass compression couplings. At the time my house was built about five years ago, an earlier generation of this (requiring special tools) was used and has since been abandoned. These plumbers didn’t have those tools and couldn’t fix the problem—the coupling between the faucet and pipe had popped out. They referred me to the company that actually installed the original plumbing on the house, only charging me a minimum fee.

The second company showed up within a couple of hours and was able to fix the problem within minutes. As it happens, the crimp on that particular connection was bad and so a failure was inevitable, sooner or later. The plumber put better insulation on the new pipe and there were no new leaks when the water was turned back on. Hallelujah.

Total bill for plumbing:  just under $150, a bargain compared to what it could have been. I still need to repair the interior wall, but I can do that myself and it is near the bottom of my pantry, so doesn’t need to be pretty. The carpet still needs to have a little padding replaced and then re-tacked. But it could have been much worse.

I learned that only drip indoor faucets, not outdoor faucets. I had a number of friends from church and work call or email with support and help, and I am deeply grateful. Most of all, thank you to my folks, who were available for consultation at the late hours at which things developed.

This episode reminds me of one of God’s highest desires for us—to love one another in healthy interdependence. When one member suffers, the rest support them. I am grateful beyond belief that my suffering has been little more than an inconvenience, but there was still some uncertainty as to the severity while I waited—was it a simple inexpensive job, or would my slab be compromised and remodeling necessary? How long would I be without water, and would I need to go to a friend’s or get a hotel? Knowing there were resources available because people cared with actions, not just words, helped give a peace to the waiting. Thank you to all involved.

Truly,

SDG