A midwestern church was proud of itself for having just successfully completed its capital campaign to redecorate its new sanctuary. Then the storm hit in Florida and Texas, destroying entire communities and causing untold damage to personal lives. The Session met in emergency session and then called a congregational meeting which voted to send one-third of their capital fund to help victims of the hurricane. When asked, the pastor explained, “We simply decided that we could not live in a palace when there were others who had no home.” Was this an act of grace in the middle of a practical campaign? “If it were Jesus, he would have given it all” smirked a cynical reporter. “I think you are right,” said an elder standing nearby. “We are not Christ but hopefully we can in this small way bear witness to Christ.”
As Karl Barth suggests, “The form in which God communicates God’s word is like a ‘riddle’ which partially hides and partially reveals what God chooses to say.” (Church Dogmatics, Karl Barth, Vol.1 p.189) Barth does not go as far towards identification of the church as Christ’s actual continuing body as does Bonhoeffer but is clear that it is in the church that the Word of God is revealed. He says, “The church is and will always be a human organization and therefore have an equivocal witness because God chooses to reveal the divine Word through this historical body of human people.” (Church Dogmatics, Karl Barth, Vol. 4.2,p.617) It remains the eternal God who acts to accommodate the eternal Word in a manner in which the Word can be received in the limitations of time by the people who are addressed.
As a personal exercise, try to reflect on the different incidents, large or small, that have taken place in a church that might be revealing what God is trying to say.
