Tip of the Spear
Several years ago I was received and confirmed at what is now my home parish after experiencing what you might call a long period of spiritual transition and great irritation with the Church. Ok, that’s dressing it up too nicely. Truth was, this was a messy season where I was sorting through everything I knew and thought I knew about life, God, the Bible, theology, and the church, struggling intensely to make sense of it as the words of Jesus about child-like faith haunted me.
Confused by the grave deception, contentious conflicts, and bureaucratic structures that I had observed in certain segments of the church, I remember thinking that what I desired most was to follow Jesus whatever it cost. Somehow I was going to have to live and express my faith and that I had seen some of the uglier warts on the Body was no excuse to quit. Giving up on church was not an option for me because things could change for the better, right? God could redeem those warts and make them beauty marks, couldn’t He? And I figured that problems are bound to arise whenever a group of people gather under one roof. Plus, there were some very good things happening in the church too. Barring some extreme circumstances, I might as well stick it out because the Christian faith cannot be lived apart from community. Still, something was amiss and had to change. What could I do and how could I pray about this?
Quite providentially, shortly after this season I found Anglicanism and grew particularly fond of the Book of Common Prayer and its beautiful ordering of collects, scripture readings, and open spaces for prayers of petition and intercession. Traveling this journey with a few friends–some of whom had experienced similar frustrations with churches–made it all the more delightful. We often used the BCP to pray together, even when we were doing 70 mph down the interstate on road trips. Every so often we would mix up our prayer time a little bit and turn to another section of the Prayer Book to include a bidding prayer. Whenever we would pray William Laud’s prayer for the Church this one line stuck out and convicted me every single time: “Where anything is amiss, reform it.”
Thomas Cranmer and the other bishops who assembled the Prayer Book were undoubtedly conscious that the Church needed to be reformed inasmuch as they themselves were actively changing it in a time of theological crisis–a noble task that would eventually cost Cranmer and many other leaders their lives. Adjusting the structures of the church and faithful clarification of doctrine in an institution that is supposed to last but has historically tended to calcify in all the wrong places is a need that remains to this day. I would humbly offer that when the church as an institution calcifies the odds are pretty good that some hearts in the pews have also been calcifying.
Sometimes I wonder whether or not those who pray that powerful bidding prayer for the church actually know where it might be amiss or if they would recognize when the Spirit of God was moving to restore something legitimate that has been lost. And, horror of horrors, what if such a restoration meant changing up the way in which ministry is done or re-formatting the weekly service? Or worse, what if your theological suppositions got challenged and re-challenged beyond what you ever thought they could be and the things you thought you could never believe in you now did? I once heard of some Baptist folks who loved God passionately and one day when they were praying they suddenly started speaking in tongues. Freaked out, they called a few Pentecostal friends and said to them: “What is happening to us? We’re now doing something we don’t even believe in but we’ve never loved the Lord more!” I love stories like that.
If the Holy Spirit is the one restoring something, we can rest assured that his movements will never contradict Scripture, for He inspired the whole of it. But his movements will challenge our pet doctrines and treasured interpretations of Scripture, and He will likely cut us to the very core. A genuine, Spirit-led reformation of the church will also never exalt sin or in any way diminish the lordship and teachings of Christ; it will always incline us to holiness and a greater revelation of Jesus. Yet in order for the church to be reformed we have to cooperate with what the Holy Spirit is doing. WE have to be reformed. And how fascinating that some of our best theologians recognized that in the stubbornness of our hearts we miss it, enough to include prayer for Church reform in the Prayer Book. They must have known that it is impossible to pray that the church be changed institutionally without also praying for our own hearts to be changed. That pre-Eucharist Collect for Purity is coming to mind right about now.
Seldom has restoring what needs to be recovered been a smooth, seamless transition, and we human beings are creatures of habit who resist change especially when we most need it. How quickly do we forget the tremendous heroics (and flaws) of Martin Luther and the persecutions he endured as we articulate justification by grace through faith as though it is the most obvious truth in the world. How swiftly we overlook the sacrificial life of revivalist John Wesley who through his preaching and ministry called the church back to sanctification, inspiring England’s toughest coal miners and many others to turn from sin. These were anything but easy recoveries for those men given the cultural and spiritual climate of the day, yet today we benefit immensely from their wisdom. These were not just better-sounding ideas; these were recovered biblical truths with profound implications, ones that demanded that our paradigms and hearts shift toward God.
When God moves he is redeeming and restoring all things, even though it may look strange to us. The church still frustrates me from time to time–it is comprised of humans after all–but if He’s in it I want to be a part of it because it is my own heart that most needs a reformation. That is not going to happen apart from other brothers and sisters gathered in his Name. To that end, I heartily pray for the church:
Most gracious Father,
we pray to you for your holy catholic Church.
Fill it with all truth;
in all truth with all peace.
Where it is corrupt, purge it.
Where it is in error, direct it.
Where anything is amiss, reform it.
Where it is right, strengthen and defend it.
Where it is in want, provide for it.
Where it is divided, heal it and reunite it in your love;
for the sake of your Son, our Savior Jesus Christ.
Amen.
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