Marrying Mother Church

i am getting ordained.

soon.

i am doing it because i love serving jesus. i love helping/pastoring/
teaching people to love jesus too.

because, really, jesus is the center, source, and goal of life.

but the church. we fall short. we.

i do not exempt myself from that reality. i am church too.

but getting ordained is a bit... no it is exactly like getting married
to the church. the church is the bride of christ.

the church is the mother of all who come to christ. because she is one
who knows christ and makes him known.

but, i feel like hosea marrying the whore.

because mother church, let's face it...

mother church is a faithless whore.

it doesn't make her any less our mother. or any less the body of
christ. but, let's be honest about her track record...

when she sold out to imperial roman power in the 300's...

when she used christ to wage war in the crusades...

when she sold salvation in the middle ages...

when she ripped apart europe and killed other christians in the
reformation...

when she helped export western colonialialism in the last three
centuries...

when she became adept at making jesus a consumer product in our
country...

when she chained herself to bureaucracy and property across the world...

she's whored herself out so often to so many, it is hard to embrace
her as mother.

and now i am going to marry her. i am going to serve her. i am going
to become part of the leadership that makes her what she is. that
guides her life.

that makes me nervous.

i believe... i know... i am called. called to marry a faithless whore.
called to be hosea version 123,011,093.1

and i am called to do it without any superhero fantasies that i can
"fix" her. i may be able to influence my part. my portion. my ghetto
in the church.

but the whole church?

hmmmm.

i am called to realize that, in fact, the wheat and weeds will grow
together in the church until jesus returns [see matthew 13].

i am called to realize that, in fact, the one holy catholic apostolic
church is made of warring factions of schismatic syncretistic
exclusionary heretical churches.

i am called to remember that, perhaps, the only way to save "the"
church is to preside over the destruction of the churches. and that
makes me sad. stressed. wary.

and yet hopeful.

because i believe in jesus.

and i believe he will have the last word.

that he IS the last word… and the first...

and i believe he has called me to this.

May Jesus draw you into Himself,
jaded.for.jesus@gmail.com
http://jadedforjesus.blogspot.com