Pastor's Column October 2005

Loving the Church
by Rev. K Karpen

Often a visitor will come up to me after the service and say, "I really love your church!" I say thanks, with a warm, goofy grin to show that his or her love is well-founded. Or I say, "I do too," and recite some of the reasons I've stayed here, and tell them they should, too.

Here's the truth of the matter, though, and you heard it from me: Loving God's job, not ours. Loving the church is what God does, not us.

William Sloane Coffin, Jr. used to like to say, "We Christians view the Church as the object of our love instead of the subject and instrument of God's." We're not here to love the church, lovely as it may be. We.re here to make sure the love of God goes right through the church as we work to love God's people.

I used to think of the church as a love factory. Now I think of it as an assembly plant. We're supposed to take the raw energy of God's fiery compassion and put it together with the raw material of food, smiles, patience, music, combs, notebooks and money. What comes out is love.

Every once in a while there.s a kink in the assembly line. Every once in a while someone forgets why we're here. Every once in a while we think it's all about us. Every once in a while the assembly process slows down. God has to kick us to get it going again.

What does that love do? It restores people. It makes hope. It creates a future. One person at a time.

The mayor of New Orleans was on the radio yesterday, explaining the plan for restoring power to the city. "We're going to work with the lighting company to restore power the only way we can: a house at a time."

That's the way the church works, too. Oh, sure, we say we house the homeless. But who are they? "The homeless" doesn't exist. We make a home for some people, one at a time. Sure, we say we feed the hungry. But who are they? "The hungry" doesn't exist. We feed some people, one at a time. Sure, we say we provide a spiritual home for people here. But who are they? "The people" doesn't exist. But I know a guy who almost gave up looking before he stumbled in here one Sunday.

We call ourselves the Body of Christ. OK, sounds better than the Assembly Plant of Christ. But the truth is, the body of Christ doesn't exist either, not really. All Christ has is your body. And mine. And we just work at the assembly plant.