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In a discussion this past week, a group of people from my community and I were talking about what the "ideal church" looks like. The responses varied, but it made me think: if we serve as Christ served, we can never hope to have the ideal church. The church is comprised of the broken, the afflicted, and the downtrodden. To envision a church with full pews, with people who serve willingly and who understand theology in any sort of orthodox fashion, who present as one body without divisions, is to place upon the church a figment of our imaginations of glory rather than the theology of the cross.
It is the theology of the cross that stops us in our tracks, teaching us upon which foundation we build the church. We live under the shadow of the cross, not as an ideal people and not as an ideal church, but as church nonetheless. The theology of glory tells us that the church is strongest when it appears as though it is not broken and when all of those gathered are able-bodied, able-minded, and able to explain the mysteries of God. The theology of the cross tells us that the church is broken, that those gathered are broken, and looks to the mysteries of God with wonder and awe.
Our pictures of the ideal church will always conflict with the true church. The true church exists in the mystery of bread and wine made body and blood, and the mystery of the Word knitting a bunch of broken sinners as broken-holy/sinner-saints. The church is not - and has never been - perfect. It has been the place where we approach the table as beggars and leave with a depth of riches: this is Christ's body for you, freely given, unworthily received, coming to a broken people and a broken church that can do no other than behold the mystery.
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