I just finished reading a book on "church" history, and I must say, it gives me great pause as I sit back, utterly baffled.
But then again, nothing should surprise me anymore.
If one were to make the tragic mistake of reading “church” history before having stumbled upon and taking note of Jesus Christ, it would be understandable that they would reject Him, and anything associated with Him, outright.
So my advice is, don’t read “church" history!
All joking aside, it boggles my mind how mankind (ironic, isn’t it, that we always say “mankind” when, in fact, man was not kind at all????)—could make such a mockery of the Book of Acts church, i.e. turned the living community of Christ into a horrid egotistical despotic hierarchy of terror and persecution.
I, as a follower of and carrier of the Spirit of Christ, do not count “church" history my history or Christ’s history or His true disciples’ history (and of course, many textbooks gloss over or do not address at all other aspects of church history: the early apologists who held a sincere and authentic faith in Christ and wrote prolifically about it. These documents do not readily appear in the historical record of public teaching institutions).
Not to say authentic sincere Christians haven’t sinned.
Look, I get it: these tyrants in the name of religion did not have it right, as their religion was so mucked up with politics and many other things, that it wasn’t even Christianity.
They did not have the Word to read and study for themselves, along with other true believers.
They were at the mercy of those who were blinded from the truth themselves; a cycle which continued until the Reformation, when the Bible finally started getting into the locals’ hands, in their language, under the teaching and guidance of the Holy Spirit in those who taught them and encouraged them to read Scripture for themselves.
Which is why I vehemently encourage people to a consistent reading of the Bible, and often become frustrated when they do not.
Because as we read in 1 and 2 Timothy, many are out to mislead us and betray Christ Himself.
“Church” history is still in play, although often disguised now under banners of enlightenment, intellectualism, legalism, conservatism, liberalism, pop-culturism, consumerism and science-ism (and I am not against science: but it is not the final word on anything, as anyone who has suffered a medical condition can attest, or who continues to read, every so often, that the missing link this time, has indeed been found! I’ve lost count as to how many “Lucys” have walked the earth!)
Anyway, after reading the distressing account of “church” history from it’s very germination to the recent past, I am more encouraged than ever that, in spite of man’s ability to co-opt Jesus Christ for themselves and their agendas (just as they do politics, charities and education systems, to name a few) man also had, and has, the greater integrity to stand firm in the true Jesus.
This is the Jesus the true followers are attracted to. Because we know that, although we cannot often explain exactly how it happened (which simply proves God has kept some things too wonderful to know for a later time), we know that, through the intricate sufferings and unexplainable gentle providences that came to us in the form of:
our babies,
the sparkling laughing eyes of our spouse,
the wagging of a dog’s tail,
the sudden running into a warm acquaintance on the street,
the anticipation of sitting over coffee with a “friend who sticks closer than a brother,”
the glory of a million delicate snowflakes, heralding down from a city sky, landing like a lace doily to adorn the outer windowsill,
the unmoving waters of Lake Michigan at 5:00 am on a humid summer morning,
the inaugural chirping of birds after an eternal winter…..
freedom from an addiction...
a re-birthed marriage...
forgiveness granted to a family member...
All I know is, not only was I blind and now I see (John 9:25), but now I know the love behind all of this, that created all of this! (Colossians 1:16).
I know it through Christ, who first loved me to teach me what love even is, and then said it was okay, even expected, that I now love myself (1 John 4:19).
Before I encountered any of this, in spite of societal permission to love myself, I could not.
No matter how many platitudes about how great I am adorned my walls, regardless of the growing collection of Girl Scout patches sewed onto my sash, in spite of excellent grades in school, in spite of a husband who adored me, on the inside I did not love myself because, I realize now, I did not know love itself.
Therefore, it was a struggle to love others.
Therefore, it was a struggle to love others.
Christ gave me permission to love myself and I took it, because I understood, first and finally, what love actually is, and it is Christ.
I love myself because He created me. He loved me into existence.
And having received His love for me, that is when I began to learn what love is and that it is contrary to human love in that it is consistent, sure, permanent, unconditional and yet with expectations, and forgiving.
That is how Christ initially enabled me to love myself, and, over time, increasingly so, and then, over time, to love others with this same love.
Obviously it is a process and not a snap of the fingers. And daily interaction with Christ is key to an increasing knowledge of, and sharing of, His love.
This love is not pride in myself: it is confidence in Christ.
All I am talking about: this Christ love—was and is missing from most of “church” history. But that history isn’t our, as believers, history. And it isn’t Christ’s history.
We who follow Christ are continuing to build a history that has always been there: a history of Christ that may never get its due in the history books or among the intelligentsia and antagonistic and atheistic theologians.
But it will play out in the veins of life that carry the blood of Christ to those we encounter, and we don’t have to travel far.
We take it in daily, this love, and in turn, live it out in steady exuberance, as if to say in everything we think and do:
“See how great a love the Father has bestowed on us, that we would be called children of God; and such we are.” 1 John 3:1a
The second half of the above verse is this:
“For this reason the world does not know us, because it did not know Him.” 1 John 3:1b
For much of “church” history, many within the “church” did not know the love the Father bestowed on them, and so could not and would not live as God’s children. They did things and taught things that directly opposed Him.
We leave all of that to God.
We take note of, and are grateful for, the early writers and apologists (defenders) who helped pave the path of Christianity before Bibles were available.
We discover and study the vibrant thread of Christ that has been overshadowed by a loud, jarring “church” history.
We go forth in Christ, not ashamed—increasingly knowing fully whom we believe, convinced that He is able to guard what we have entrusted to Him until that day, retaining the standard of His sound words, in the faith and love which are in Christ Jesus (paraphrase of 2 Timothy 1:12-13).
We soberly and yet with joy, “guard through the Holy Spirit who dwells in us, the treasure which has been entrusted" to us (2 Timothy 1:14).
Amen.
copyright Barb Harwood
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