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 ...