Another week brings more news of church scandals: financial improprieties, adultery, and child sexual abuse. While I’m saddened and disappointed, I don’t know why I’m surprised. If you have any large group of people, some will eventually behave poorly. Having spent many years among God’s people, I know that the church has its share of people who are nagging, judgmental, angry, hypocritical, and unpleasant; that’s one reason why I fit right in. And as I let more church people get more involved in my life, it’s only a matter of time until a few will be offensive, hurtful, and unkind when I need them the most. A Medieval manuscript compares the church to Noah’s Ark, “If it weren’t for the storm outside, you couldn’t stand the stench inside.”
Scripture uses many different metaphors to describe the church: a house, a nation, a herd of sheep, and a human body. But the metaphor I like best for God’s people is a family. God Himself is my Father. Jesus is my brother. Fellow believers are my sisters and my brothers. Like my earthly family, God chose most of those who would join my spiritual family. When I focus too much on people I’d like to avoid, I miss out on knowing the other wonderful people God has placed in my family. And as we serve the Lord together, I get to know my brothers and sisters in a way that it such a blessing and encouragement to my faith and hope. Here are a few examples:
The women who taught me the most about the Christian faith when I was an unbeliever was a co-worker who was nearly twice my age. She was nervous speaking with me about her faith but her courage and her love for Jesus overwhelmed me. As she taught me the Scriptures, I came to see that she had a heart for others and a divine source of grace. I saw her persevere under difficulties and injustice at work, in a tough marriage, and as a foster family for troubled teenagers.
My first pastor had an incredible memory for people’s names and faces. There was a two-year gap between my parents’ first and their second visit to my church. But this pastor remembered their names, where they lived, and a bit about their work. With his talent, he could have been a wealthy business leader or a successful politician, but instead he used his gifts for the Kingdom of God, teaching, encouraging, and supporting others.
Perhaps the most intelligent woman I know gave up the opportunity to be a physician, choosing instead a nursing career so she could more quickly become a missionary. She learned Spanish so she could serve in Belize. And now she has learned Japanese to serve in Sendai, where the earthquake and tsunami hit in 2011. With a servant’s heart, now she has put her career aside to be a wife and mother to her five blond and blue-eyed children, in a nation where having at most one child is the norm and teach English to women in her community.
When I moved to Pennsylvania, two elderly women immediately welcomed me to their church and “adopted” me as their son. Over time I came to learn that they gave up careers as executive secretaries to be traveling evangelists across the U.S. from the 1960’s through the 1990’s. They met so many wonderful and famous people over the years, and yet they never bore others with their stories. They were always eager to know about the people around them—from a young child, to a lonely visitor, to the most important community leader. They would talk very little about themselves, and they never complained about their aches and pains. They often said that no one wanted to hear them give an “organ recital.”
My former pastor and his wife gave up lucrative careers when they received the calling into full-time ministry. It’s one level of sacrifice to forego nice cars, big houses, fancy dinners, and luxury vacations to pursue a career in teaching, social work, or some similar vocation where the most important rewards are not monetary. But I have a whole new level of respect for this couple who give up a standard of living they worked for decades to achieve so she could lead a crisis pregnancy center and he could work in a homeless shelter.
God’s church is filled with some of the best people I’ve ever met, and I shouldn’t be surprised. The transforming power of God’s grace in anyone’s life can turn the worst sinner into the greatest saint. Most of us will not make the news, but we trust that God is pleased with our faithfulness and that our lives are a witness to His power and love for us. And who knows how many more great people I’ll meet along the way.