Pedestalling

Pedestalling seems a common building material used in constructing walls between people outside the church and people inside the church. By pedestalling I mean putting people up on a platform of unreasonable expectations. This seems a good and just excuse for staying out of or building up a case against the church in general.

I think this testifies to the fact that the very grace this church operates by is itself an assault on the rational mind. It is this God who chooses the weak to shame the strong, who can convert a life in a single moment and have it changed forever, and who seems keen on using the very opposite of a human's rational expectation to carry his valuable message. His message is grace and that is why he sends those who have experienced grace the most - they are a sign, a testimony. They are imperfect.

People stay away from churches which are full of hypocrites; and that's their reason. Absolutely, the church is teeming with people who say one thing and do another; whose spiritual fathers can be quoted as writing "that which I hate I do". We are those who agonize over our imperfections, and whose perfection is full knowledge of our loved imperfection. (see 1 John 4:18)

The church without hypocrites is an empty one. The church that only accepts perfect people would be the one that is equally as criticized as those which are criticized for being full of hypocrites. It seems the actual fact is, people are looking for a way to disbelieve, looking for loopholes in the church or the faith. But the rational mind will eventually be assaulted by the lack of excuses.

Let's welcome even more hypocrites into the church, and let's bring them in every Sunday morning and teach them, so that we can all grow together, and become perfect in Love. Let's ask the imperfect to fill our pews, and tell them that they're not the only ones. Let's stop pretending and admit our failures, and give voice to the testimony of grace. And most of all, on both sides of the fence, let's stop judging each other. There is no one on this earth who has enough insight into the big picture and each individuals' own journey to make a judgment of any kind.