Maria Baer: A realistic view of God’s family

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Tuesday March 26. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. Up next: WORLD Opinions commentator Maria Baer on dealing with sin in the Church.

MARIA BAER: On a recent episode of the Armchair Anonymous podcast, one woman told a story of a man at an Alcoholics Anonymous or AA meeting who took up a collection for a kickball league. After gathering the cash, he proceeded, in full view, to stuff it into his backpack. The group kicked him out. But the woman seemed almost amused, like a mom shaking her head at her kids’ harmless mischief. These addicts and their hijinks, am I right?

My mind wandered. What if that had happened at church?

There are many similarities between church and AA, even beyond the not-so-subtle “Higher Power” stuff. Like church, AA is also supposed to welcome everyone. People are supposed to share deep, uncomfortably intimate and unflattering details of their lives with a group of people that might not have much in common with outside this meeting. They gather together often because they know that bad habits thrive in isolation, and that people who are trying to withstand temptation need community, accountability, and radical honesty.

However, after several high-profile scandals, Christians seem to have lost that kind of realistic view of the Church. Rather than accepting conflict as an inevitable part of doing life together, we’re often caught off guard by it. “Church hurt” has become its own category of pain, made worse because it bursts the lovely bubble we thought encompassed the Christian life.

On the one hand, Christians are called to a higher standard of behavior. Paul describes the fruits of the Spirit–love, joy, patience, kindness–not as character traits we’re lucky to have at birth but as virtues we should cultivate. By the help of the Holy Spirit, those of us who enter the fold as liars should stop lying, those who were thieves should stop stealing, and those with a bad temper or a judgmental heart should be different.

But imagine a man taking up a collection at church and then pocketing the cash. How would this story be told? As disappointing hijinks or a sign of toxic problems festering in the Church?

The internet age we live in makes us vulnerable to the allure of “exposing” all the hypocrisy we find inside the Church. Some of us build entire online media brands around doing just that, implying that the cause of sin is always bigger than human nature. It’s a theology problem or it’s the fault of a certain Bible translation or a denomination or Christian publisher.

To be clear, it’s reasonable for a church to ask someone who steals money and is unrepentant to leave. But we shouldn’t act like something must be fundamentally wrong when we encounter sin within our walls.

Most people who show up to an AA meeting don’t need to be convinced they have a sin problem. Christians should show up to church the same way, but with an even deeper hope. We don’t need to expect perfection or even social grace from all of our brothers and sisters all of the time. Paul told the Ephesians that all believers are members of the “household” of God. “Household” means family, which includes all the messy, lovely baggage that word carries.

I’m Maria Baer.

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