That is the church

Every once in a while, I (being an avid reader) come across something I must pass along. Like someone who is in dire need to to know something that person can write about, I dither and dather along, reading and absorbing whatever I can.

Like a dog sniffing for something edible even if said dog is full, I dither and dather. There is no, by the way, word dather. I just like dither and dather for unspecified reasons.

In a world that constantly condemns and judges the ineffectiveness of the church, I thought these facts might be good to know: (Facts, not opinions; facts...) I constantly remind folks that the church doesn't exist for the one hour per week we do worship. Far from it. The church exists for the remainder of the 167 hours per week. One hour versus 167. Where could we possibly do the most good?

Just the facts, miss

The Church is the largest single provider of health care in the world, and also the largest single provider of eduction.

Whenever one wants to complain about the Church, one needs to remember the leaders of the early church successfully campaigned against infanticide, and the same Church Fathers (an interesting term  when one starts to absorb the following fact) stood up for the rights of women by naming marriage as a sacrament. Sacraments, by the way, are things Jesus told us to do.

Churches established the first orphanages.
Churches established the first homes for the elderly.
Churches established the first homes for the disabled.
Churches were vital in the effort to abolish the slave trade, helped pioneer social work, modern foster care, modern nursing and free health care for the terminally ill.

That's the church. Is, was and will continue to be, I suspect.

One hundred of 110 U.S. universities were founded by the church. A missionary pioneered the most successful world literacy effort in history.

The church feeds, teaches, houses the young, the sick and the old. Always has.

A minister spearheaded a campaign to protect children from abuse at home or in the work place. Don't even get me started on what the Salvation Army did for care of the poor and the least and the lost or what the Quakers did for prison reform.

If you think this is all about the early church, what about Pope Francis, the darling of the left and the hope of the right, whose latest ideas is to provide showers and free haircuts for the homeless in St. Peter's Square.

That's the church.

Justin Martyr said of the early church and Christian love, "We who used to value the acquisition of wealth and possessions more than anything else now bring what we have into a common fund and share it with anyone who needs it. We used to hate and destroy one another and refused to associated with people of another race or country. Now, because of Christ, we live together with such people and pray for our enemies.

Clement, an early Christian Father describing the person who has come to know God, wrote, "He impoverishes himself out of love, so that he is certain he may never overlook a brother in need, especially if he knows he can bear poverty better than his brother. He likewise considers the pain of another as his own pain. And if he suffers any hardship because of having given out of his own poverty, he does not complain."

That's the church.

When polls continually show the shrinking number of church attendees each week, we cringe and act as if the world has broken apart. When polls continually show the loss of persons who care for others, whose hands seem incapable of reaching out to those in need, we need to make sure we remember that simply is not who we are. The church is and has always been the first to throw itself into the battle to feed and clothe and give to those who are starving, those who are in need.

That's who we have always been. Nothing about the circumstances of the times, about gender and sexual roles, has changed that. We are there with bandages and water and food when the earth shakes. We are there with doctors and nurses and care givers when the typhoons strike, when lightning strikes and the flood water rises. We are there 167 hours of the week, and on that 168th, we're there to lead those who have been fed and clothed and emotionally treated in worship and thanksgiving to a God who allowed those of us who are capable to help those of us who were not.

That's the church.

Don't let any rumors or gossip or stories tell you differently.

A church's love means not just never having to say it is sorry. A church's love means getting up and going, answering God's call in ways we never did before. Love means not just singing and preach and praying, but holding someone who needs holding, propping up those who need it and picking up those who have fallen.

That's the church, friends. All the squabbling and fussing and fighting doesn't take away the fact that when the world needs an element to care for others, much more often than not it's the church that becomes that element. Though the unchurched element that doesn't help others sometimes has a tendency to make fun of the element that does help, it is the church that puts its life on the line.

When the storms come and the hungry seeks a meal, it's the church that will be there to make sure they will have life and have it abundantly.

So, don't listen to all those who will knock her. Don't watch those who will parade false accusations against her. Don't even see the mistakes she has made and shake your head in aspiration.

The church is not perfect. The one who built it is.