A Response to "The Walking Wounded"

How does the church respond to a broken world in light of its own brokeness? I feel John's criticims of the church's tendency to "copout" when it hurts people are spot on. The church does need to be aware that it is made up of hurting, broken people, but that is not the focus. Brokeness is a reality that is discovered in light of the Law, which Christ so beautifully expounded in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 5-7). This realization brings us to a place that is utterly hopeless - because we are not "sort of" broken, we are completely broken - and this drives us to the cross, but the truth is in the redemption that Christ's death and resurrection offer. Part of that redemption is forgiveness and that is what we must seek when we hurt others.

I think the tendency to blame things on our brokeness comes out of a sneaky pride issue. At least for me, there is a part that wants to remedy situations where I screw up. I want people to know that I am not that bad and that I am still a "good" guy and so I say that "I am broken" as if that is an excuse. No...that is a fact, but it is not an excuse. The only loving response I see to the church hurting anyone is to humbly seek forgiveness. When we hurt someone we need to seek reconcilliation. The motive and reason is for us, not for them. We certainly need to treat our hurtful actions seriously and attemt to discover from what they were born. We do this through prayer and sometimes even fasting (in my opinion), but it is ultimately for us.

I find that most people that are antagonistic to the church are so because they have been burnt by people in the church, representing the church. Someone or some group hurt them and instead of repentance they find excuses (read-not the Gospel) and leave talking of hypocrisy. In my opinion, such criticisms are not unfounded.