Rubbing Off the Edges

I heard an interesting quote today from my dad.  He said “Christians need community.  You put them all in a community together and they rub the hard edges off each other.   It’s a refining process.”  I took a few moments to digest that statement and realized how true it is.  If we are honest with ourselves we are pretty screwed up.  All of us without exception need work and need a little refining if not a complete heart rebuild.  If you look at the disciples, they were a rough bunch of characters.  It took Jesus Christ three years of ministry with them and they still needed refinement and community to make them the men of God who were all eventually martyred for their faith in Christ (even John, though he survived it and died of old age eventually).

So is the church a huge rock tumbler for Christians?  We polish off the hard edges and reveal the gems underneath.

Oh how we resist that rubbing against each other though.  Learning to live with each other is hard work.  I can understand why many churches resist any kind of outreach.  They have approached that perfect synergy of not enough people to make it crowded enough that they have to touch anyone else.  They sit scattered throughout the sanctuary on a Sunday morning.  Reserved seats to avoid any kind of traffic jam upon leaving and far enough back that they don’t feel like the pastor is speaking to them too personally.

Then there is the other side.  The perfect oiled machine with jewel movements to prevent any undue friction.  It will be a politically correct sermon without really any kind of reference to sin but will focus on how God loves us just as we are.  We can scale this they say.  We can grow, make satellite churches, and take the message global.  Make easily digested meals and serve it up to the masses.  We will have our five year goals (regardless of the verse that says tomorrow has enough worries of it’s own), a perfect game plan for ministry that is a clean room dissection of the messy coagulation we find ourselves in every week when we meet together and real flesh and blood people have to touch other flesh and blood people.

I think I have figured out that this church thing isn’t about being nice.  It’s not about getting in and out unscathed.  We are humans after all.  We hurt.  We cry.  We ooze emotion and puss and blood when things don’t go right.  We get diseases of mind, spirit and body.  It’s about being close enough to feed the hungry.  It’s about being near enough to dry a tear and be a shoulder to cry on.  A community that comes into the sanctuary and huddles together to keep each other warm and safe while they devise a plan to bring in more hungry, naked and diseased children out of the wind, rain and dangers that circle to devour the unsuspecting.  A city of refuge.  A training center for those who would risk everything for those who without knowing that there is a hope for life would choose death.

When you get close to people and you learn to love them, you hold them accountable for their actions.  Not because it’s right, but because you do love them.  This accountability is hard sometimes.  Hard edges don’t get rubbed off overnight.  It’s a process of being together and going through the pain of having those edges rubbed off gradually.  Every jagged edged rock in this tumbler is valuable though.  You are valuable.  The marks we make on each other in love are a part of the process.  Who have you made a mark on this week?  Who have you held accountable?  Who have you allowed in your life to hold you accountable?

 

Tags: accountability, Christianity, Church, community, Faith, Jesus, love