To friends who I believe have all struggled at one point or another with the fallenness of some churches today... David Bosch's "eloquent description of our contradictory feelings about the church":
"We can be utterly disgusted, at times, with the earthliness of the church, yet we can also be transformed, at times, with the awareness of the divine in the church. It is
this church, ambiguous in the extreme, which is missionary by its very nature, the pilgrim people of God, in the nature of a sacrament, sign, and instrument, and a most sure seed of unity, hope and salvation for the whole human race." (David Bosch, 1991,
Transforming Mission: Paradigm shifts in Theology of Mission)
Even before he goes into missions there, I thought that was a great little bit on loving the church. I'm trying to hold onto that as I look for a church out here among the culture of wealth in the suburbs of Philadelphia.
Also an interesting thought on politics and social systems from Walter Wink:
"God at one and the same time
upholds a given political or economic system, since some such system is required to support human life;
condemns that system insofar as it is destructive to full human actualization; and
presses for its transformation into a more human order. Conservatives stress the first, revolutionaries the second, reformers the third. The Christian is expected to hold together all three" (Walter Wink, 1992,
Engaging the Powers: Discernment and Resistance in a World of Domination)
