Taylor Mertins

Do you know what the mission of the church is? Our denomination says we exist to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world. That’s fine. But it betrays the central claim of the Gospel: God has already transformed the world in the person of Jesus Christ!

The kingdom we live in is based upon what God has done and is doing for us, rather than upon what we do.

The church doesn’t have a mission - we are the mission. Our being is based on the presumption that we are witnesses first and foremost to Christ who is the difference that makes all the difference. We bear the marks of his life that gives life to us and others. Jesus has already made us different.

We, then, don’t exist to make changes, but living in the world made possible by the cross will, naturally, lead to transformation. It will lead to transformation because we embody the joy that comes from being part of Jesus’ body. It will lead to transformation because we can’t rest easy while the world is flushed down the toilet. It will lead to transformation because we know the truth (his name is Jesus) and that peace comes through weakness, not violence.

Blessed are those whose lives are an absolute mess, for God does God’s best with broken pieces.

Blessed are the humiliated, for they are on the journey to humility.

Blessed are the broken-hearted, for grace falls through the cracks.

Blessed are those who grieve, for what is grief if not love persevering?

Blessed are the last, least, lost, little, and dead, for to them the kingdom has been prepared.

Blessed are the forgivers, for, at the end of the day, what else is there?

But woe to you who think salvation is yours to earn through power, wealth, and pride, you will be disappointed.

Woe to the fat cats, there will come a time when you are empty.

Woe to those who think life goes on forever and ever, for you will die.

Therefore, live wild and reckless lives, for in so doing you will inherit the kingdom of God.

Love the unlovable.

Forgive the unforgivable.

If someone asks for food, invite them to your table.

If someone is in need of clothing, give them the jacket off your back. None of it was ever yours in the first place.

Love others the way you would like to be loved.

Whatever Christianity is, it is at least the discovery of friends we did not know we had. Friends who are possible only because Jesus has gathered us in for God’s great parable to the world we call the church. Friends who are willing to carry us to Jesus over and over again because Jesus is the difference that makes all the difference.

Flannery O’ Connor once said, “Most people come to the Church by means the church does not allow, else there would be no need their getting to her at all.”

Which is just another way of saying that Jesus meets us where we are, not where we ought to be. But then Jesus takes us somewhere else.

Nothing can separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus, not our money or lack of it, not our possessions or our minimalism, not our goodness or our badness, not our lives and not even our deaths.

We might not see it, or even believe it, but there is greater wealth in the salvation of Christ than in every bank account in the world.

And it’s ours for free.

We can’t earn it.

We don’t deserve it.

It’s not cheap, nor is it expensive.

It’s free.

It’s free for you and me and every fool the world will ever see.

A crucial eccentricity of the Christian faith is the claim that salvation does not come to us by natural inclination, by birthright, by earning, or deserving. Salvation is a gift from God. And because it is a gift it can only be received on God’s terms, not ours. The church is the witness to the gift of salvation, reminding us time and time again what we have been given even though we deserve absolutely nothing.

That’s a hard truth to swallow, the “we deserve nothing.” But it’s true. We all do things we shouldn’t, we all avoid doing things we should. We are imperfect people. We might not be the type of people who forget our children back in Jerusalem and wander around for a few days before we find them, but we do have a lot more in common with Mary and Joseph than we let on. What’s more, even though we fail to be an obedient church, even though we fail to love God and one another, God offers us grace anyway.

Faithful prayers are those that offer us up to possibility because prayer is the ultimate recognition that we are not in charge. Prayer deconstructs all of our preconceived notions about what is, and isn’t possible.

Prayer reminds us that God is God, and we are not.

The strange and bewildering proclamation of the Gospel is that you can put your whole bank account in the offering plate and God will not love you any more or any less. God loves you no matter what. The Good News really is that good. It's so good, in fact, that we can't help ourselves from changing because of it.

Jesus is the shepherd to risks it all on the one who is lost. Jesus is the Samaritan who lavishly helps those down in the ditch. Jesus is the Father who forgives before apologies are offered. And Jesus is the unjust steward, the dishonest manager, who fudges our accounts when we don’t deserve it.

It’s too easy, at times, to lose sight of how weird it is to be part of the church. For many years we have endeavored to appear as appealing as possible to those outside. Whereas the real test of whether or not the church is the church is if we are sufficiently unacceptable to the world.

We are not yet another club or social gathering that provides a needed distraction from all that is wrong in the world.

We are the body of Christ for the world - we model God’s future in the present.

We live, oddly enough, by grace. We practice trust and honesty and forgiveness in the midst of a time in which those things sound like fairytales.

The church is God’s parable for the world.