Matthew 5:45 gives us a clue about life and grace. Stuff happens to us ALL. If there was no church, “stuff” would still happen. When there is a church, “stuff” still happens. God is the only one who can grant grace. The church can point to and talk about grace, but it’s not the sole dispenser of grace. That’s a myth!
Moving a few chapters up the line in Matthew, we come to the thirteenth chapter where we have the parable of the wheat and tares. It’s obviously a parable that has been lost on the church. Or, maybe the church thinks it has a grandfather clause working in this area.
Fundamentalists particularly want to shape up the tares or ship them out: can you say pull them up and cast them out. Jesus had another opinion of course.
Leave them alone!
What? We can’t allow sin to invade our churches. The church is God’s place, His sanctuary. And I’d submit to you that church is not a building, but person(s) who come together. All of us have our “stuff” and so therefore it should be easy for us to have mercy on all. Ahh, but we have an ego which thinks its sins are less than everyone else.
This will not sit well with fundamentalists; however, the job of the church isn’t about “eternity” (thats God’s job), but how to live rightly in the nasty-now-n-now! It’s so much easier to deal with “later” where accountability for “now” teaching can’t be scrutinized.
The church must (read people) get back to loving people- ALL people! The Holy Spirit is more than capable of taking care of whatever isn’t going right. It’s not my job or your job to do God’s job of deciding who is good, who is bad: who is IN, and who is OUT!
You have no patent, no copyright on grace church!
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