“Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity.
Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt,
so that you may know how to answer everyone.” Colossians 4:5-6
In the book The Screwtape Letters, C.S. Lewis tells the story of two demons, who discuss how best to lead a particular human away from Christianity, the Church, and their great Enemy—God. The book is a rather clever way to deepen our understanding of the temptations that we undergo in our daily lives. A portion that I found most insightful is a dialogue where the wiser demon, Screwtape, advises the younger, Wormwood, on how to use the Church to drive this Christian away from the Church! “When he gets to his pew and looks around him, he sees just that selection of his neighbors whom he has hitherto avoided. You want to lean pretty heavily on those neighbors. Make his mind flit to and fro between an expression like ‘the body of Christ’ and the actual faces in the next pew. It matters little, of course, what kind of people that next pew really contains. You may know one of them to be a great warrior on the Enemy’s [i.e. God’s] side. No matter. Provided that any of those neighbors sing out of tune, or have boots that squeak, … or odd clothes, he will quite easily believe that their religion must therefore be somehow ridiculous” (p. 6).
Do we at times have a hard time seeing spiritual significance despite physical appearances? Are we too easily distracted with the things of this world to see the deeper things of God at play? There is a gap that is observed between appearances and truth. Too often we forget that Christians are both saint and sinner. We are the forgiven and beloved children of God, and yet we are also still those who are daily “poor miserable sinners. We do not always reflect God’s light in our “moral” goodness, but we do have a unique and powerful chance to reflect God’s light in our personal experiences of grace. The Apostle Paul says that even though he was the chief of sinners, he proclaims that, “I received mercy for this reason, that in me, as the foremost, Jesus Christ might display his perfect patience as an example to those who were to believe in him for eternal life” (1 Timothy 1:16). Do you see the primary testimony of your life, as one that gives thanks for God’s undeserved grace and steadfast love? My testimony tends to be a list of places that I messed up and God’s grace cleaned up and covered up. My testimony doesn’t often point to how many things I’ve done right. Instead, it points to how many times God has shown unlimited patience, unrelenting forgiveness, and unending love.
There is a gap between “appearances” and “realities” when it comes to individual Christians and the collective group of Christians called the Church. Paul describes the church as the ‘body of Christ’—a group knit together as one functioning body with each member playing an essential role. And yet we know that the “body” of the church does not always function as it should. We have “aches and pains” within our relationships, as well as our “strains and stresses” within our unity and our witness in Christ, and yet Paul reminds us that even though our unity in the body of Christ is imperfect, we are still serving as a witness to those around us. Some of our most powerful testimonies as the people of God can often be moments when we point to God’s grace in our brokenness, God’s forgiveness in our mistakes, God’s welcome in our failures. We currently walk by faith, not by sight. We live in the tension between what is visible and invisible. We lead lives both as saints and sinners. And yet, despite all of these tensions, we recognize that God is using our lives and our relationships to reflect the love, forgiveness, and grace that He has for us and for all.
We are a church that emphasizes Connecting, Learning, and Caring, all for the sake of Serving the mission of Christ. Where is God inviting you to let your light shine? Where is God inviting your testimony to tell of His “perfect patience” for imperfect people? Where is God calling you back to the good news that in Christ Jesus you are fully known and fully loved by Him who created you, redeemed you, and even right now is in the process of making you holy.
May God grant to you this day and every day His blessed peace. Amen.
