Why the Church Matters, Part One (Leftovers)

The text from Sunday was Hebrews 12:22-29, where we get a glimpse of heaven and some very useful starting points to defining the church.

Here's the thing I didn't have time to tackle: it's on the notion that the world (and Christians) often give that the church is full of hypocrisy and sin, or the idea that the wheat the tares that Christ talked about in Matthew 13, makes it impossible to trust any local body. Well, that didn't seem t obother Christ or the apostles. In Matthew 16:13-19, Christ set the apostles up as those on whom he'd build his church, and presumably Judas was standing right there. Not only that, but Christ had been with these guys for the past three years or so, and he'd seen their lack of faith, their mess-ups, etc., and yet he still gave them the task of building the church. In I Corinthians 1:10-11; Galatians 1:6; 2 Peter 2:1; Jude 4; and Rev. 2-3, we see the apostles and Chrsit calling out the sin (specific and general) in local churches, admonishing them toward holiness and purity, but never, never, giving up on them or withdrawing support of them, simply because sin existed in them. See the visible church is always going to be an imperfect and skewed view of the true, catholic church. That's why, as believers, one of our jobs is to fight and pray for its purity and right handling of the Word and sacraments. But, if Christ doesn't give up on his bride, we shouldn't either.

Any thoughts/questions you have from Sunday's lesson, or thoughts for future lessons would be greatly appreciated and welcome!