Reflections on the Heart of the Church
“I know that during this pandemic we have changed our rituals and our programs, but the real question is have we changed our heart? The pandemic mandated a change of rituals and programs, but God says he is not interested in that. What God wants is our heart!!!!! —Pastor Vickie Jones
God does not want just the outward rituals and programs we show the world. God wants my heart, my very being, and God wants the hearts of His people.
I have struggled with the church for quite a few years now. In fact, I am quite angry with the church. I have struggled because the rhetoric I heard from the church and the rituals and programs we participated in, were not always in sync with the actual behavior of the Body of Christ. In other words, the message and manifestation of the church were not consistent, and as a result I began to disconnect from this institution I love. I wonder how many others have felt this disconnect as well, both within and outside of the Body of Christ? Of course, I am not referring to all churches, but I am referring to a trend in the church that has resulted in the exodus of far too many. And far too many more are refusing to even grace our doorways.
As Pastor Vickie Jones so wisely says, our rituals and programs have changed. And in many ways, our old way of life as church folks has been canceled, at least for the time being.
What is God calling the Body of Christ to do differently – individually and collectively, in this most unusual season we are living in?
Does God want our rituals? Does God want our programs? Or does God want our hearts?
The Lord, through the prophet, Isaiah 58:1-12, says it better than I can.
1 “Shout with the voice of a trumpet blast.
Shout aloud! Don’t be timid.
Tell my people Israel of their sins!
2 Yet they act so pious!
They come to the Temple every day
and seem delighted to learn all about me.
They act like a righteous nation
that would never abandon the laws of its God.
They ask me to take action on their behalf,
pretending they want to be near me.
3 ‘We have fasted before you!’ they say.
‘Why aren’t you impressed?
We have been very hard on ourselves,
and you don’t even notice it!’
“I will tell you why!” I respond.
“It’s because you are fasting to please yourselves.
Even while you fast,
you keep oppressing your workers.
4 What good is fasting
when you keep on fighting and quarreling?
This kind of fasting
will never get you anywhere with me.
5 You humble yourselves
by going through the motions of penance,
bowing your heads
like reeds bending in the wind.
You dress in burlap
and cover yourselves with ashes.
Is this what you call fasting?
Do you really think this will please the Lord?
6 “No, this is the kind of fasting I want:
Free those who are wrongly imprisoned;
lighten the burden of those who work for you.
Let the oppressed go free,
and remove the chains that bind people.
7 Share your food with the hungry,
and give shelter to the homeless.
Give clothes to those who need them,
and do not hide from relatives who need your help.
8 “Then your salvation will come like the dawn,
and your wounds will quickly heal.
Your godliness will lead you forward,
and the glory of the Lord will protect you from behind.
9 Then when you call, the Lord will answer.
‘Yes, I am here,’ he will quickly reply.
“Remove the heavy yoke of oppression.
Stop pointing your finger and spreading vicious rumors!
10 Feed the hungry,
and help those in trouble.
Then your light will shine out from the darkness,
and the darkness around you will be as bright as noon.
11 The Lord will guide you continually,
giving you water when you are dry
and restoring your strength.
You will be like a well-watered garden,
like an ever-flowing spring.
12 Some of you will rebuild the deserted ruins of your cities.
Then you will be known as a rebuilder of walls
and a restorer of homes.
Is God indicting us, His people? We “do church” really well, until doing church just wasn’t an option anymore. When we could no longer go through the motions of our rituals, ordinances, and programs, our masks came off. The church could no longer hide behind the guise of being the righteous people of God!
Oh yes, we may have thrown money at the problem of the hurting and oppressed among us. And yes, we have helped a few folks along the way. Yet the church, instead of revealing God’s Light to the culture, has been a tool of the Empire. We have become a tool of the darkness. The church has been complicit in maintaining the societal structures that favored some people over others. Appearing to represent God to the culture, it was all the while quietly whispering in the darkness, the same hatred that the culture has espoused. Now, God’s people are spewing loudly the same hatred that the larger society expresses in spoken and institutional ways.
God is calling for a Heart Change in His people. This pandemic and social injustices are putting the church of the Living God on notice. These twin plagues in America are calling us to be still and look in the mirror at our own sinfulness and complicity in cultural wickedness. I am speaking today about the sin of racism, because it is the evil that God’s people are finding it difficult to address. Racism has multiple definitions, but it involves what we believe deep down about the “other,” and the structures we put in place and maintain these false beliefs. These systemic and institutional structures insure the “other” is not our brother and sister in Christ, and they feed this monster called racism.
Both the liberal and conservative segments of the church struggle with dealing with racism, and its impact on the Body of Christ and our society in general. Each side has their pet social justice issues – abortion, climate change, sexuality and gender justice, etc., but neither side is dealing with racism adequately. There is either total denial and silence on this issue, or ongoing conversations and conferences about it without real and tangible action. This painful season of social unrest and the pandemic is calling us to Listen to the Voice of the Sovereign God! The earth itself is groaning and still we refuse to fully engage and deal with the issue of racism.
For the people of God, “social distancing” is the opportunity to take time away from doing church in ways that make us comfortable, in order to take an extended pause and sit in the Presence of God. Our rituals and programs allowed us not to deal head on with the matter of our hearts. God is calling us to Pay Attention to His Voice. What is He speaking to each of our hearts? God is calling us to pay attention to and deal with the racial injustices we have failed to see all around us. God is calling me to examine my heart. My heart for God, my neighbors and myself. And God is calling His collective Body to do the same.
Maybe frequent hand washing is a picture of our need for frequent heart washing. Keep washing your hands, but maybe our hearts are what really need cleansing.
These treacherous and deadly viruses in the natural realm are a picture of the maliciousness and contagion of sin. So easy to catch and so difficult to get rid of without much diligence, care, and of course much prayer.
And, I wonder about folks who refuse to wear masks. I find it interesting that folks refuse to wear masks during this pandemic, when they wear masks all the time. The masks we hide behind that make us appear godly and righteous. Or liberated and free. Christians often wear masks that make us oblivious to the sinfulness in our own hearts, and the pain and suffering we see all around us. We wear spiritual masks that allow us not to truly see ourselves, and unfortunately, not to truly see others as well. They lull us into a false sense of our own spirituality, deceiving us and making us believe that we have already arrived at the height of our knowledge and understanding of the Holy.
I believe that we are in a season where we are being called to truly examine ourselves, and to look to God to heal what is truly broken in us.
No one person can do all of the work of the Kingdom, but each person is called to do his and her work in the Kingdom. And part of that work is to open ourselves to the One who knows everything about us. “Search me, O God, and know my heart. Test me and know my anxious thoughts, my fears, and what seems to threaten me. Point out anything that offends You, and lead me along the path of everlasting life (Ps. 139:23-24).
God is calling us to a place in Him that is far beyond our particular rituals and programs, and far beyond our religious and political associations and ideologies. Does “Love Your Neighbor as Yourself” belong to a particular political party? Is the Love of Christ the dominion of a particular sect, or racial, ethnic, or tribal group?
What if the people of God are being called to look at and acknowledge our own brokenness first? Jesus did not unleash the apostles on the world until they received Power from On High. Maybe, just maybe, we are in a season for another Wave of Pentecost. Are we, like those eager first century Christians asking, “What must we do to be saved?” And are we being implored to recognize the foundations and the truths underlying our rituals, ordinances, and programs?
We are being called to reconciliation In Christ and to each other in ways that will not only transform the church, but In Christ, transform the world. We are being called to be the Image of God in this world and see God’s Image in our hurting brothers and sisters.
Pastor Vickie Jones invites us to ask ourselves, “What will your post-pandemic heart be like?”
I hope you ask that question of yourself and your church community now and begin the hard work of looking within. I believe God is saying to us, “I’ll give you a new heart, and put a new spirit in you. I’ll remove the stone heart from your body and replace it with a heart that’s God-willed, not self-willed. I’ll put my Spirit in you and make it possible for you to do what I tell you and live by my commands.” (Ezekiel 36:26)
As the prophet Isaiah reminds us, when we obey the Voice of God by being the goodness of God in this chaotic world, and not just doing church as we always have done, we His people, will be the repairers of that which is broken, and restorers of the home, the culture, and the nation.
People of God. It is time.