The A.A. Church

I am reading "what good is God?" by Philip Yancy.  It is a collection of speeches he was invited to give and one was to an Alcoholics Anonymous group. In it he compares the church to AA. In AA, everyone knows that they are an addict and that they are utterly dependent on God to give them strength. To keep them from that first drink. To better their character and help them make amends to all the people they have hurt (and to the ones that they are hurting now).  Church is often quite the opposite. In church, we can be lured into the trap of the Pharisees, whom Jesus called "White-washed tombs." They looked so good to other people by keeping up appearances, but were filled with stinking filth on the inside. It is the trap of righteousness: when you begin to feel that you are better than others, closer to God, or that you know the truth when others do not. Jesus warned us of this path. But to often in church, we shy away from the truth that we are sinners and that we are not worthy of the grace afforded us.  If everyone in church were as accepting as people in A.A., the church would be a force to be reckoned with. Yancy quotes an alcoholic that said, "If I walked into A.A. and said I just shot my wife, someone would ask, 'well, are you going to drink?'" He is accepted fully as a flawed human being and nothing exempts him from the fellowship of his fellow sufferers.
   What if church was a place where you could be real and be open about your failings?  Where you were always completely accepted?  And where everyone knew that they were your brother because they are no better or no worse than you?
Church is this when everyone is keenly aware of their status as sinners. That is the church Jesus offered us.