Word for the Church: Watchers in the Wings

This morning as I skimmed the news headlines, I saw an interesting video clip that had gone viral, and since it included my favorite soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo, I watched it. Ronaldo entered a press conference and sat down in front of his microphone. Next to his mic, someone had placed Coca-Cola bottles for him to drink if he needed them (this is apparently a popular advertising tactic used by many companies). Ronaldo, however, is a well-known health fanatic. As he sat, he frowned at the bottles, picked them up, and moved them arms-length from him. Then he grabbed his plastic bottle of water he'd brought with him, lifted it, and said in Portuguese: "Drink water."

And get this: Share prices for Coca-Cola on the stock market dropped four billion dollars in that moment.

!!!!!

Because Cristiano Ronaldo said: "Drink water," Coca-Cola took a walloping hit on the stock market.

I don't know very much at all about the stock market, but $4bn seems like an awful lot of money to me. And it mowed me over to think of the influence this soccer player held with two simple words spoken in a language I don't even understand. His influence was primarily in his actions and the amount of weight people placed on his importance in their lives.

Ouch, and wow, and this should make us carefully examine our own actions under the lens of the Holy Spirit's microscope.

I love the picture that Paul paints in 1 Corinthians 3:10-15. He says: "By the grace God has given me, I laid a foundation as an expert builder, and someone else is building on it. But each one should be careful how he builds. For no one can lay any foundation other than the one already laid, which is Jesus Christ." 

In other words: Jesus Christ is our Cornerstone. Everything we think, believe, and understand about spiritual things ultimately is and should be centered on Him.

"If any man builds on this foundation using gold, silver, costly stones... wood, hay, or straw, his work will be shown for what it is, because the Day will bring it to light. It will be revealed with fire, and the fire will test the quality of each man's work. If what he has built survives, he will receive his reward. If it is burned up, he will suffer loss; he himself will be saved, but only as one escaping through the flames."

That's a powerful word picture, and it's one that calls us to examine our actions. Are we building the Lord's kingdom -- centered on the Cornerstone, that is, Christ -- with gold, silver, and costly stones -- able to be refined in the fire and come out purer and worth more?

Or are we building the Lord's kingdom -- centered on the Cornerstone, that is, Christ -- with wood, hay, and straw, all of which will go up in flames when the judgment fires touch it?

Here's the thing: We the church have the power of $4bn dollars. 

No, we're not going to shoot down a soft-drink giant with our words. But we have watchers in the wings. We have people who look at our words and our actions and judge for themselves whether we're real, genuine, or whether we're fraudulent, bags of hot air.

Let me ask this: When push comes to shove, when we come down to the wire, when we brace on the starting line for the pistol shot...

Are we going to have the courage to say what needs to be said and to do what needs to be done? Are we going to choose gold over wood, silver over hay, costly stones over straw?

You know the story: Once upon a time, there were three little pigs... One pig chose to build his house of straw, one pig chose to build his house of sticks, and one pig chose to build his house of sturdy bricks. The first two pigs got chased by the wolf who stood at their door and called out: "Little pig, little pig, let me come in!" When the little pigs refused, the wolf said, "Then I'll huff and I'll puff and I'll blow your house in," and all the straw and all the sticks in the world couldn't stand up against the pigs' enemy.

Depending on whether you're reading the Disney version or another one, those two pigs are either eaten on the spot, or they race for cover in their brother's sturdy brick house. In both Disney and other versions, the wolf approaches the brick house, tries to blow it in, but the wolf's tactics are no match for the hard work of the third little pig, who -- wisely -- knew the costliness of foolish choices.

Yesterday, the Holy Spirit led me down that line of thought, and I'm trying to think how best to say this. In the first part of this post, I focused on personal choices, personal decisions that will be weighed in the balance on the Day of Judgment. 

But the church as a whole also carries responsibility to guard our words and our actions collectively. As I said above, there are watchers in the wings: The world watches the church to see our response to various events, agendas, and cultural pivots. And this is why the Bible absolutely pounds the message that we must be one in unity with the Father and with each other in Christ. 

What happens when there are disagreements, as there will inevitably be? 

Scripture has a few practical suggestions: "If you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift" (Matthew 5:23-24).

And: "If your brother sins against you, go and show him his fault, just between the two of you. If he listens to you, you have won your brother over. But if he will not listen, take one or two others along, so that 'every matter may be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses.' If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector" (Matthew 18:15-17).

Jesus said it; Paul pounds in this idea in 1 Corinthians 5:11-13: "But now I am writing you that you must not associate with anyone who calls himself a brother, but is sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater, or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat. What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? God will judge those outside. 'Expel the wicked man from among you.'"

Ouch. This is one of those passages that kept me skirting around 1 Corinthians for a while anytime I considered what book to go through next for this blog. It's hard (I touched on this idea in my post: Word for the Church: Rhetoric and Holy Boundaries). It's a really hard thing to do, because -- like I love my children, we love our brothers and sisters around us, and when they're walking away -- we want to open up our arms and tell them to walk back into our home.

Sometimes, it takes sleeping with the pigs and eating their slop before we realize that we should be back in the Father's house. Sometimes, because of the "kindness and compassion" of those around us, we continue sowing our wild oats, blind to the havoc we're causing, because no one bothers to tell us hard things, difficult things. You know those parents who turn a blind eye to their children's public temper tantrums, because they don't want to fight the fight, embarrass themselves, hurt the feelings of their children...? 

I do. I've been one of those parents. But church, we have to step up. When we aren't accountable to each other and to the Lord, that's where unity falls apart. That's where the world watching in the wings turns away in disappointment.

The Holy Spirit showed me something two days ago while I was praying and waiting on Him. I saw a picture of a hand and most of a forearm that was detached from the rest of a man's body. The man was lounging in a chair, seemingly a waiting room, dressed up in a tuxedo. But the hand and forearm of this man just plopped in front of me, still wrapped up in the sleeve of the tuxedo, separated from the upper arm that it had been a part of. There was no blood or gore, just... separation.

I spent the last two days asking the Lord what that was, and this is what I think He was saying. This is the church, dressed up, wedding ceremony ready, waiting to begin the feast of the Lamb -- except that there is a part of the church that is walking a different direction, a different way, and as we all know -- bodies can't do that. The body works together; we are united in the Lord, where Christ is the head. But if one part deliberately decides that Christ is no longer the head, if we deliberately choose to put aside the headship of Christ and His teachings and His Word, the Scriptures... that part of the church disconnects.

The Lord says: "No one can snatch them out of My hand" (John 10:28), but when they wander, 1 Corinthians 5 makes it clear that we are not even to eat with them. Fellowship should be cut off from those who live in a continual pattern of willful sin.

This is such a big thing; David makes specific note of it in Psalm 19:13: "Keep your servant also from willful sins; may they not rule over me. Then I will be blameless, innocent of great transgression." Y'all, I mess up, often; does this mean I should be put out of fellowship? As long as I come to the Lord with a heart that says: "Lord, forgive me," He looks me in the eyes and says: "Then neither do I condemn you; go and sin no more." 

The moment I legitimize my sin, the moment I step into it and embrace it as my identity, I no longer have my identity in Christ. "But we have the mind of Christ" (1 Corinthians 2:16).

So here's the word the Holy Spirit gave me: The church -- the wider church -- not just your local attending body, is preparing to separate. The majority of us are waiting at the feet of Jesus for the wedding feast to begin. But there are some, still dressed in their wedding garments, still looking like a part of the body... who are going to detach, separate from the body of Christ.

We've got to let them go -- so that they may come back. Paul wrote to the Corinthian church specifically about a man who was sleeping with either his own mother or his stepmother, and this man was a part of the church, continuing in fellowship with them. Paul nailed the church to the wall with this: "And you are proud! Shouldn't you rather have been filled with grief and have put out of your fellowship the man who did this?"

Then he instructed the church what their next step was supposed to be: "When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, and the power of our Lord Jesus is present (all three of these things were essential for the weight of this ceremony), hand this man over to Satan, so that the sinful nature may be destroyed and his spirit saved on the day of the Lord."

When my kids mess up, and then look at me with puppy dog eyes when I give them their punishment -- it is sometimes the hardest thing ever to enact the consequences. Because they're cute and sorry. But with the wisdom that comes from experience, I know -- at times -- that they haven't learned their lesson without the consequences, and so I have to push through and punish them anyway.

Why? So that in the long run, they are saved from themselves.

My kids watch me, and sometimes they emulate me. Are they seeing gold, silver, and costly stones being laid on the Cornerstone with my actions? Or are they seeing wood, hay, and straw? The Lord will make it all clear on the final Day.

Meanwhile, make this your personal challenge: Test every action. Lay them on the Cornerstone, that is, Christ. Make sure each action, each word is worth its salt. Keep the wolves at bay. The world is watching from the wings, and you hold the weight of $4bn in your choice.