The Value of the Church

Psalm 8                            Romans 5:1-11                     John 16:12-15

The Value of the Church

Have you ever wondered why God doesn’t simply put a stop to everything? If he has made all things new, as the New Testament teaches us, why is there still sin and suffering and sorrow? Scholars down through the centuries, all by far my superiors, have debated and argued and written about this question…and I am under no delusion that we will find an answer to that question today. 

But, as with most things, I believe truth is simple rather than complex. Perhaps that is why Jesus said the kingdom of God belongs to those who are like children…children who have not yet learned to be critical in their thinking. Most children, barring those who have been robbed of joyful simplicity through abuse by authority figures, are not prone to see things from many different angles…what they see is what they accept…and trust is normally not an issue.

I think behind the obsessive desire for God to bring an end to the present age lies a faulty understanding of how God works. Most westerners, at least, have embraced a philosophy of prosperity and ease and this has slowly seeped into the theology of the Church. When the going gets tough, the tough are exposed as, well, not so tough…and we are quick to pray for a speedy rescue. Come quickly Lord Jesus! And if there is no immediate deliverance forthcoming, our faith begins to crumble. Perhaps God doesn’t love me, perhaps God doesn’t care, perhaps God does not exist…

We also live in a throwaway society where old or used or damaged or broken things are easily and quickly discarded and replaced by new things…until that new thing becomes old or used or damaged or broken. But God is not like that. He doesn’t simply discard his creation or his creatures. God does not abandon us or give up on us. We learn that lesson throughout salvation history starting in Genesis chapter 3. God could have caused everything in the universe to implode on the day Adam and Eve disobeyed him so that he might start again with a new and unflawed creation…but he didn’t, did he?

I think one way to illustrate the way God works is the Japanese art form known as Kintsugi which means "golden joinery". Kintsugi is the art of repairing broken pottery by mending the areas of breakage with lacquer dusted or mixed with powdered gold, silver, or platinum.

The Kintsugi technique treats breakage and repair as part of the history of an object, rather than something to disguise. As a philosophy, kintsugi embraces the flawed or the imperfect, because it sees value in the marks of wear in any given object. Actually, the technique highlights the cracks and repairs by using a shiny precious metal because the artists view the cracks or fractures, not as irredeemable imperfection, but rather as just one event in the long life of the object. Therefore, the mended object is treasured instead of discarded. Its service is not brought to an end at the time of its damage or breakage.

In the same way, instead of discarding his broken creation, God picked up the pieces and slowly began to repair the damage, not with precious metals, but ultimately with his only Son’s precious blood. But the effect is the same…while we humans are not flawless, and while creation still groans in pain waiting with us for our complete redemption, in Jesus we are redeemed, repaired, and restored for use by the King.

I believe this is the gist of what Paul was saying in Romans 5. When we were still powerless, Paul said…when we were still enemies…when we still broken, Christ died for us. Jesus picked up the pieces of our shattered lives and glued us back together with something far more precious than gold. He glued us back together with love. He did not trash us…he did not discard us…he took us as we were, put us back together, and filled us with his Spirit so that, even in the midst of brokenness, we might continue our service as living examples of his grace and mercy. 

It is interesting that in both cases…those who lovingly piece back together the shards of smashed pottery, and God who lovingly pieces back together the fragmented lives of believers…the object is to redeem the brokenness. The vessel does not remain broken. It is repaired so that it might be used as it was intended to be used. So too with the followers of Jesus. While the signs of breakage…the scars of sin…may still be quite visible, we are remade to serve as we were intended to serve. But, although our God meets us in our mess, he does not intend to leave us there. Just like the mended piece of pottery demonstrates the skill of the artisan, we too serve to display the grace and mercy of our God. 

The repair work itself proclaims that God values us enough to mend us. In fact, we could say that it is our brokenness that showcases God’s love for humanity. It is by our mended lives that others see the true character of God…he loves us enough to fix us. Our mended cracks display his greatness.

It is our repaired brokenness that serves to show the glory of God, and therein lies the role of ongoing suffering. Suffering is, in many ways, part of the redemptive process. The repairing process takes time. If the piece of pottery is to be used, the artisan must make sure that it is well mended. As sad as it may sound, suffering serves the same purpose. Suffering, Paul said, produces something…it produces a hardiness…a strength. Suffering, he said, produces perseverance, and perseverance produces character, and character produces hope…a hope that will not fail us nor frustrate us nor disappoint us. Ultimately, it is suffering that produces a hope that will hold even in the darkest and most difficult of times.

But there is even more to ongoing suffering than this. I believe suffering serves to keep us humble…it serves to remind us that we did not earn our salvation. Suffering serves to remind us that we are all flawed…that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God…that none of us are perfect…none of us are complete. Suffering serves to remind us that none of us have arrived yet. We are all at once saved and yet still being saved. Salvation is, in many ways, a lifelong journey that starts when we first surrender our brokenness to Jesus. 

And therein lies the reality of life in the Church. We are all broken…we are all in some or other state of repair…none of us are perfect as all of us are flawed. Only one is perfect and that is the Lord who has saved us and who is still putting us back together again through the ongoing sanctifying work of the Holy Spirit. As such, we need each other because we are not all broken in the same way nor are we all mended in the same way. We all have different gifts and skills that work together to unite the broken pieces that we are. As the redeemed body of Christ, we are meant to be interdependent and as we serve our Lord and serve each other in the limitations of our own fragility, the world is confronted with the truth…that God loves…that God values the world so much that he was willing to give his Son to die for us even while we were still powerless…while we were still without God…while we were still rebellious sinners…while we were still shattered, broken, and cracked.

Therein lies our value. What is a human being that God should be mindful of him? the Psalmist asked. The answer lies not in the human, but the God of the human. We are valuable because God values us…we are bought and paid for with the priceless blood of Jesus.

Today, we gather as a body of believers to hold what is called the Annual General Meeting. Far from being a chore or a burden or a bore, this meeting serves to highlight everything I have just said. We are people who are loved by our Maker…loved enough to be put together, not just as individuals, but as members of his Body. Each one of us is like a broken piece of pottery…every piece is needed to make the vessel whole again. I need you and you need me, and we all need each other. The Annual General Meeting illustrates the necessity for every member to work together to make this body function properly. From the opening prayer asking the guidance of our Lord, to the apologies of those who are absent, to the minutes of the previous meeting, to the various reports, to the activities of the church council, the chaplaincy, and the synod…all these things demonstrate our need to work together as a body in our collective service of our Lord.

It is here, in what may seem to some to be mundane, that we see God at work. Every action…even if flawed or imperfect…every action, regardless of how big or how small…every action performed by one of his children is precious to him because every one of his children is precious to him. He’s proved this by demonstrating his love most clearly on the cross of Jesus Christ…he’s proved this by not discarding us…by not ending it all and starting anew…he’s proved this by picking us up and putting us back together again. 

Shall we pray?

© Johannes W H van der Bijl 2022