Daily Meditations
Written by Henri Nouwen
Forgiving the Church
When we have been wounded by the Church, our temptation is to reject it. But when we reject the Church it becomes very hard for us to keep in touch with the living Christ.
When we say, "I love Jesus, but I hate the Church," we end up losing not only the Church but Jesus too. The challenge is to forgive the Church. This challenge is especially great because the Church seldom asks us for forgiveness, at least not officially. But the Church as an often fallible human organization needs our forgiveness, while the Church as the living Christ among us continues to offer us forgiveness.
It is important to think about the Church not as "over there" but as a community of struggling, weak people of whom we are part and in whom we meet our Lord and Redeemer.
3 comments:
I agree that we need to forgive the church but I hope that people do not think that means that they should continue to meet with a group of people they believe are hurting more than they are helping. It is one thing to accept that the church is made up of flawed people and another thing to stay connected to a group of people who are emotionally and spiritually damaging. Forgiving does not mean ignoring an offense or justifying a wrong doing. For instance - if I find out that the person staying with my child while I am away is getting drunk and passing out I can forgive that person but it doesn't mean that I should have them stay with my child again.
It is true that not being connected with other Christians to worship, learn and serve makes it very difficult to stay the course of being a follower of Jesus Christ but no more so than being connected with a group of people that are toxic and unfortunately there are a lot of toxic groups.
This is a great post, Elle. Thanks for sharing Nouwen's words of wisdom to those of us who have been hurt and forgotten...
Thanks for the comments Gracerules and Bill. I found the article quite moving, and I am glad that it struck a chord with you both as well!
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