Sunday, July 17, 2011

What Really Damages the Church

You know, I think we complain about the wrong things as being threats to the Church. We will complain about things like abortion and gay marriage. These are harmful things... but they aren't really threats to the Church.

You know what is. Us shrugging when we see "god" written without capitalization. Or all the modern translations not capitalizing "he" when it refers to Jesus. That's just us falling into a lack of respect.

Why do I think this one is more pernicious? We ought to expect the world to be wild and wicked. But we also ought to expect the Church to take care to see that God is show respect.

It's not the world that isn't acting according to expectations - it's the Church.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I grew up with the WELS hymnal, and the congregation, of which I am a member, still uses it. The Sanctus has "Blessed is he..." When I went to college I attended an ELS church. Their hymnal has "Blessed is He..." It was at this church that I realized that the "He" was Christ and not myself. The WELS hymnal can give the impression (if one is not taught) that the communicant is blessed because they are approaching the altar "in the name of the Lord," rather than focusing on Christ who "comes [to us] in the name of the Lord." Now I make the sign of the cross at this particular portion of the Sanctus in order to remind myself of this.