And Are We Really Doing Any Better??

So it starts off well. The garden of Eden.

"This is gonna be great!" That could be the rallying cry.

But Adam and Eve snatch defeat from the clutches of victory. Tales of woe follow.

So God steps in an introduces his first great covenant with one man: Abraham. The covenant is "formalized" many years later at the foot of Mt. Sinai with one people: Israel, the descendants of Abraham. The God of the heavens will call this people his own.

"This is gonna be great!" That could be the rallying cry.

But the people of Israel snatch defeat from the clutches of victory. Tales of woe follow.

So God steps in an introduces his 2nd great covenant with all of mankind. (No one can fault God for not thinking big!) This new covenant is ratified with the death of Jesus Christ, God in human flesh. We have been set free from sin by the blood of Christ.

"This is gonna be great!" That could be the rallying cry.

But the church of Christ has, by and large, snatched defeat from the clutches of victory. Tales of woe follow.

Someone will perhaps at this point jump up and, rightly, point out that this is not the victorious message proclaimed by the writers of the New Testament. We are the church victorious! We are one step away from the great finale where God comes down at the end of the ages! And we, the church of Christ, will become the bride of Christ. Touché.

But on the other hand, the book of Genesis started out on a pretty good note too.

So did the Exodus story.

The problem is not with God. It's with us. And I really don't think we're doing a whole lot better than our forebears. We're largely just miffing another great offer.

Sure, I could spin things a bit. I could assume the church is healthier in other parts of the globe. But since I don't live elsewhere I'll just describe what I see here in America. What I see here is, by and large, more of the same. Idolatry. Covetousness. You name it.

Oh, sure! We like to mock the Old Testament Israelites. "They were so stupid," we sneer. "They worshipped idols made of stone!" Idiots.

Granted. And it's true that we, enlightened souls, have not bowed to idols made of wood and stone. No. We're not that dumb. We only worship idols made of plastic and glass. They glow in our living rooms. (How cool is that?)

And we worship sports teams.

And nowhere does our worship become more pronounced than when the sports teams we worship are presented on the glowing screens of the plastic-and-glass gods we worship. A 2-for-1. When that happens? Well! We get as excited as any prophet of Baal.

The Old Testament Israelites worshipped at the temple, to be sure. They put in time at the holy place of Yahweh. But.... then they'd slip out to the shrines on the hills too, where they prostrated themselves before false gods that they mistakenly thought would secure a good harvest and fertility in general. These false gods offered, so the Israelites thought, a secure and fertile future.

"How silly," we say. "How hypocritical! Why didn't they just trust God to take care of them? Fine and good. Except that we do the same.

Oh sure! We go to church on Sunday and talk about God providing for our every need. But then we slink home and tend to our 401K and IRA savings accounts just as anxiously as any Israelite approached their fertility god.

Because apparently a secure future is not within the means of God to provide. Wasn't then, and isn't now. We have to take care of that on the side. That bit of life is too important to trust to God.

I could go on and on. (I suppose I am going on and on!)

The New Testament Pharisees thought they had a lock on the God thing. They thought they could line up God and get what they wanted from him provided they followed certain laws carefully enough. They never realized God wanted their hearts.

"How hypocritical and blind," we note scornfully. Oh, yes! We love to watch Jesus tear into the Pharisees for their wickedness. Then we church folk proceed to live utterly unholy lives which are literally, statistically indistinguishable from the lives of those who do not attend church. Why? Because we too think we have a lock on God. We think we can get what we want from him provided we say the right thing carefully enough.

"So long as I claim Jesus as my savior," we foolishly think, "I can do what I want and I'll be forgiven of it all at the end." But God always wanted our hearts – and no one who thinks like that belongs to God. We are as stupid as the Pharisees.

The great irony is in how the cycle repeats. The Pharisees mocked the wicked Israelites who preceded them. We love to hear Jesus point it out.

Matthew 23:29-33
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You build tombs for the prophets and decorate the graves of the righteous. And you say, 'If we had lived in the days of our forefathers, we would not have taken part with them in shedding the blood of the prophets.' So you testify against yourselves that you are the descendants of those who murdered the prophets. Fill up, then, the measure of the sin of your forefathers! You snakes! You brood of vipers! How will you escape being condemned to hell?"

We've come full circle. We now mock the Pharisees. They were heading to hell, we note approvingly. But we have been invited into the kingdom of God! We are invited to the wedding feast. We are to become the bride of Christ!

But Jesus had a few words for us too. And like the Pharisees, we're too blind to realize he's talking about us.

What did Christ have to say for those invited to this great event?

Matthew 25:1-12
"At that time the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish and five were wise. The foolish ones took their lamps but did not take any oil with them. The wise, however, took oil in jars along with their lamps. The bridegroom was a long time in coming, and they all became drowsy and fell asleep.

"At midnight the cry rang out: 'Here's the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!'

"Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, 'Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.'

" 'No,' they replied, 'there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.'

"But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut.

"Later the others also came. 'Sir! Sir!' they said. 'Open the door for us!'

"But he replied, 'I tell you the truth, I don't know you.'

Those word are for us. But like the Pharisees, we're too blind to see it.

There were holy people in the Old Testament days. But what we remember today is how most of the people of Israel behaved. And it was nothing to be proud of.

There were holy Pharisees in the New Testament era. Some of them followed Jesus! But what we remember today is how most of the Pharisees behaved. And it was nothing to be proud of.

There were and are holy members of the church of Christ. Some people who self-identify as Christians actually follow Jesus! But from my limited vantage point, what I see in the American church is nothing to be proud of.

In his wedding parable, Jesus indicates that half of those invited never make it past the doors of the banquet hall. I think it's safe to say that all of God's people will celebrate that banquet. So what is Jesus saying? That his church is a failure?

No.

I think Jesus is pointing out that his church is not what people think it is. There are plenty of churches and tons of church folk in this great land of America. But the number of people who belong to Christ is quite small.

The rest are just a bunch of blind fools.

Dear God, don't let me be one of them.