I love Jesus. Most of the time I like Jesus. I am learning to love the church again. I am allowing myself to ask questions I never asked before. I don't ask because I want to degrade Jesus, but because I think He is strong enough for my questions. These are thoughts as I continue my faith journey from deconstruction to reconstruction and beyond…
When I was growing up I remember watching Superman and Batman on TV. They were great memories. Superman and Batman were always completely good and the bad guys were always, well wholly bad. It was so easy, and it fit so nicely with my childlike preference for black and white.
Somewhere, around the turn of the century, I observed a change in our superheros on the big screen. They were no longer wholly good. When the movie Civil War came out, I boycotted the movie for years. The idea that superheros could get in a fight was more than I could handle in my mind.
However, as I began to watch more of the Marvel movies, they began to change my perspective. Gradually, it began to make sense that superheros could have flaws. In fact some of the heroes struggled with some of the same challenges that I had. I began to relate to the superheroes in ways that I never could in the 70's superhero shows. To be honest, that connection sucked me into the Marvel Universe.
I began to realize that we are all flawed individuals. And it had a dramatic effect on my relationship with Jesus.
All my life I had a very black and white perspective on Christianity and more specifically the church, thinking that the American church was always 100% right and the World was always 0% right. This belief had led me to be prideful and even power hungry, and I am certain I was not alone.
I thought that assuming the church, the hope of the world, could be wrong or mistaken was paramount to denying Jesus but realizing we are flawed does not prevent us from reaching the world; it helps the world to connect with us and eventually trust us. When people trust the church, they can finally listen to the church, and, if we do it right, hear Jesus.
Clearly Jesus is always right, but when we assume our interpretation of what Jesus wants is 100% accurate, we set ourselves us for mistakes.
I opened my eyes to see more of the world. I realized that genuine Christ followers in my community thought differently than me and my church. Then I realized that those differences were magnified even more when I looked at the church around the world. The more I saw the more illogical it was for me to assume that me and my church were indeed the keepers of all Christian orthodoxy. I realized that I probably had at least some things wrong. If I could have some things wrong compared to other Christians, it followed that I could even have some things wrong compared to those outside the Church.
I used to think that if I studied rigorously I would always come to the 100% correct answer, and I could use that to beat others over the head as needed. Now I see that I should study rigorously to find the most faithful, most accurate answer to questions, but then I must humbly hold the answer loosely in my hands recognizing that I still may be wrong, continuing to listen to others.
The path I have taken with Marvel, I have now taken with the American Church. I now see that the church does make mistakes, and that sometimes the World gets things more right than we do.The American Church would be well off to assume a more humble relationship with the world and listen to it. Were we do this I believe the following could happen
- Our prideful attitude toward the world would morph into a humble, listening attitude
- We could deny our thirst for power and trade if for a thirst to love people into the kingdom of Jesus
- We would see real lasting work in our churches and our communities as more people began to trust the church and partner with it.
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