The Net

Monday, 13. March 2006, 02:50:40

Jesus did not shy away from sinners, so why should the Church? And don't tell me the Church welcomes sinners. I know better. It welcomes only sinners who repent and then never seriously need forgiveness again. It can reclasp to its bosom members who gossip or lose their tempers - which apparently are itty-bitty sins though where that qualification came from is not clear -

but God help those who fornicate or lose their will to stay married! And it has the gall to make such invidious distinctions in the name of a Lord who unqualifiedly told Peter, the Chief Fisherman, to forgive his sinful brother (Andrew, perhaps? - maybe he wasn't the good ole boy he was cracked up to be) seventy times seven times.

Ah, but.....

you object, "what about reform?
Are we to give the world the impression it doesn't need to straighten up and fly right? Are we simply to imply that it can get away with murder if it likes?

Well, for openers, the world has already gotten away with -- no -- that is too weak; it has already been absolutely saved by - its murder of God himself incarnate. But for closers, neither the world nor the Church has ever had much more than the glide angle of a coke bottle.

Sure, there is the power of the Spirit to make people better. But note carefully that that is not what some folks like to scream about when this objection is raised -- quite frequently. This objection was talking about what we should or should not "do" to improve the human race's aeronautics.

Do you see? If even the divine jawboning on Mount Sinai couldn't reform the world, why should we think that our two-bit tirades against sin will do any better? So once again: sure there's reform; and it is even an important subject. But like everything else about the kingdom, it works in a mystery: it comes not when we decide to enforce it but only when God, by his paradoxical power, brings it about in his own implausibly good time. If he is willing to wait for it, why should the Church be in such a rush? After all,