A Word for the Church: The Papier-Mâché Chameleon

Yesterday in my kindergarten class, since it was the day before St. Patrick's Day, we took the opportunity found in the proverbial rainbow leading to the pot of gold, and we studied about light refraction. We each picked out some prisms, shone light through them, and watched how rainbows appeared on the ceiling of the room.

In simplistic terms (from someone non-sciency, begging pardon from all real scientists who have offered much better explanations), when the white light bends through the prism, the refracted light separates into its three primary colors (red, yellow, blue) and its three blended colors (orange -- the mixing of red and yellow, green -- the mixing of yellow and blue, and purple -- the mixing of blue and red).

My kindergartners had all sorts of fun playing with various refraction tools, finding ways to make rainbows all over the room. And I was amazed all over again at the technical and absolute genius of the Creator God who made... light. From four simple words: "Let there be light" comes this amazing phenomenon. It's truly mind-blowing.

This morning, my alarm went off and I picked up my phone, swiped to dismiss the quiet beeping, and glanced at the morning's news with bleary, sleep-fogged eyes.

The very first thing that came up: an argument between two factions of people regarding something Francis Chan -- a respected and well-known voice in the church -- had said regarding unity in the body of Christ. 

Ironic, isn't it? 

I scrolled for a bit, trying to keep my eyes open, waiting for my body to exit its sleepy state and head into normal function, and my finger scrolled over another post, this time a video of Francis Chan. When one thing hits twice... I pay attention; often, it's the Spirit nudging me to look, pay attention. So I watched the video. The closed captions were on, since my phone was silenced, and I read along as he read aloud Scripture after Scripture, showing the church's holy call to unity with the Father. 

Francis mentioned where Jesus Himself spoke to His Father about us, His body: "I am not asking on behalf of them alone, but also on behalf of those who will believe in Me through their message, that all of them may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I am in You. May they also be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me" (John 17:20-21).

He flipped over to Ephesians and read: "Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called: one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all" (Ephesians 4:3-6).

Then he went back a couple of pages to Ephesians 2:14-18: "For He Himself is our peace, Who has made the two groups one and has destroyed the barrier, the dividing wall of hostility, by setting aside in His flesh the law with its commands and regulations. His purpose was to create in Himself one new humanity out of the two, thus making peace, and in one body to reconcile both of them to God through the cross, by which He put to death their hostility. He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near. For through Him, we both have access to the Father by one Spirit."

Who is the "both" mentioned here? Jews... and Gentiles, and boy, is there a long, sordid history of division here.

I glanced down at the comments under the video and saw -- and was not really surprised by -- the inevitable quarreling and arguing among people -- Christians, at least professing ones -- who held strong opinions.

Again... ironic, isn't it?

And the Spirit spoke to my heart, leaving a strong impression in the form of a vision. I saw a body, and I knew it represented the body of Christ. There was the head -- Jesus ("He is the head of the body, the church..." Colossians 1:18). There was the body -- the church ("Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it..." 1 Corinthians 12:27).

But in this picture, the body was disfigured and actually looked grotesque. Why? Because it was completely covered with bits of moldable, muddy, sticky clay pieces, flattened out and stuck to the body. It looked like the worst papier-mâché rendition of "creepy swamp-monster" ever.

Here's the thing about papier-mâché: it's a shell. It holds the form of whatever it adheres to, but it does not in any way have the substance of the original element. It is a chameleon, looking like the original, but not ever becoming a part of the original.

The papier-mâché body was a startling image. I sat straight up in bed, dismayed. Why in the world would the body of Christ look like that?

The vision didn't end there. As I watched, the clay pieces had much the same corrosive effect as some types of acid. The body was completely covered, but as it suffered beneath the pieces, the head... split in half, a deep jagged fracture rifting one side from the other.

Now -- I don't for a second believe that Jesus, the Head will ever be overcome, defeated, or split. He has already overcome by His death on the cross and His resurrection from the dead. He's the King of kings, Lord of lords, and He sits at the right hand of the Father. "Take heart!" He says, "I have overcome the world!" (John 16:33)

But those papier-mâché pieces gave a jagged, distorted appearance of the true body, and the fracture gave the appearance of defeat, because the moldable pieces so thickly covered the body, that they blocked out the sight of what was true and right and good underneath.

Chameleon. Giving an appearance of the truth without actually being the truth.

I crawled out of bed and came out to the living room to pray. I was truly disturbed.

Here's something to note: we are called to unity with Christ and with His body, the church. However, a key distinction to make is this: We can only be united with one another as. we. are. united. with. Christ. A body without a head is dead in the water. I don't care how much one hand wants to scratch an itch on its opposite shoulder; if there is no head to pass that message along, the hand is going to lie still. That itch is going to go unscratched.

First, unity with Christ. Out of that, unity with one another.

I admit I have struggled for a long while over how to juxtapose the message of 1 Corinthians 13:13 -- "And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love" -- with the call to holiness found throughout Scripture.

Culture says: Love conquers all. Scripture says: Love conquers all. What's the argument?

I think it's here: the presuppositions presented by culture and by Scripture are two different things.

Culture supposes that love = no boundaries.

Scripture purports that love = boundaries. See, for instance, John 15:13-14: "Greater love has no man than this: that he lays down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command" -- a.k.a. a boundary. See, for instance, John 8:10-11: "'Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?' 'No one, sir,' she said. 'Then neither do I condemn you,' Jesus declared. 'Go now and leave your life of sin--'" a.k.a. a boundary. See, for instance, Hebrews 12:6: "The Lord disciplines those He loves, and He chastens everyone He accepts as His son--" a.k.a. boundaries.

I sat on the couch and opened my Bible and began to pray: What are you saying, Lord?

He led me to 1 John 2:15: "Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him."

But... but... love conquers all... right?

Here's what hit me like a freight train: "Love Me, and from there, I give that love to everything and everyone else. That is your holy calling. That is the love that is greater even than great faith and great hope."

Back to my kindergartners' prism lesson: Light -- normal, everyday light -- sent through a refractor, separates that stream of light into the rainbow -- which is the representation of several different and distinct parts of that single light. You can't see those parts -- without the refractor.

Jesus is the refractor. Jesus is the One who takes the love we have, the God-given love that wells up inside of us, and uses it to refract it into a beautiful picture of love for the rest of His creation.

Without the refractor, the light remains white, and we miss the beautiful brilliant colors of the rainbow.

I am oh-so-well aware that culture has taken hostage the meaning of the rainbow. Which is actually a perfect metaphor for the chameleon -- a look-alike shape without any part of the true and original substance. Let's look beneath the papier-mâché at God's original creation, at the beautiful Mind that put this phenomenon into existence with "Let there be light."

The chameleon is the papier-mâché. The chameleon is the swamp monster that covers over the church and looks kind of like the church, but is a distorted, grotesque version of the real thing.

Back to 1 John 2:18 "Dear children, this is the last hour, and as you have heard that the antichrist is coming, even now many antichrists have come."

If you, like me, grew up hearing and reading about the last days and the antichrist who will eventually set himself up in power (portions of Daniel and Revelation), this may be confusing. But further down in this passage, John explains: "Who is the liar? It is the man who denies that Jesus is the Christ. Such a man is the antichrist -- he denies the Father and the Son" (1 John 2:22)

Looking back up-passage: "This is how we know it is the last hour. They [the antichrists] went out from us, but they did not really belong to us. For if they had belonged to us, they would have remained with us; but their going showed that none of them belonged to us. But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and all of you know the truth [what is beneath that papier-mâché]. I do not write to you because you do not know the truth, but because you do know it and because no lie comes from the truth [no papier-mâché will ever be the real thing]... I am writing these things to you about those who are trying to lead you astray" (Parts of 1 John 2:18 - 27).

The devil, try to lead us astray? Say it ain't so! The devil, try to use our friends, family, acquaintances to lead us astray?

...

"But as His anointing teaches you about all things and as that anointing is real, not counterfeit [not papier-mâché images], -- just as it has taught you, remain in Him" (1 John 2:27).

My main point here: Unity for the sake of unity... is a chameleon. It looks very close to what we're supposed to do. It looks like truth. It has the appearance of holiness. But it is not what Christ calls us to do.

Unity for the sake of Christ, where Christ is the central point of focus, the refractor, the lighthouse (and I could go into another entire blog post about lighthouse symbolism) is the central call of the church and one to which we must pay attention.

That kind of unity is a holy call. And it's a call that we -- on a massive, grand scale -- are missing, by and large.

Oh, Jesus, be the Center. We need discernment; we need wisdom. Help us to recognize Your Voice.

I'll leave you with this, a quote from the book I'm reading: Brad Jersak's Can You Hear Me?: Tuning In To the God Who Speaks. Referring to a word the Holy Spirit spoke, Brad reiterates the Voice's message to him: "My heart for the church is that she would know My Voice so well that all of the sheep could distinguish between My Voice and any others, even when we're talking at the same time. In fact, I want you to know My Voice even if I am telling you something very strange (remember Abraham and Isaac). And I want you to know when the enemy is speaking even when he's quoting Scripture (remember the temptations of Jesus)" (p. 53).

Discernment: What is real? What is papier-mâché? Jesus, be the Center of our focus.