In Our Midst

Giving Them A Voice

Pardon my heavy-handedness...I do not mean to be so, but this is where my heart is today: heavy. You see it's all part of this disturbing trend within the Church; a trend where we put on smiling, joyful, or peaceful masks as we pull into the church parking lot. We go through the motions during the services, struggling to keep our mask in place for the duration, sometimes barely making it back to our car before it crumbles to pieces again. The hurts and hang-ups and habits that stress us out, bring us down, and threaten to destroy us remain buried deep in the recesses of our soul, shrouded in secrecy as far as our brothers and sisters in Christ are concerned. Forget that we have been called to bear one another's burdens. How can we when we don't even know they have burdens?

Perhaps the more important question is "Why don't we know...?" Why haven't they shared their burdens with us? Why haven't they shared that their marriage is on the brink of divorce because of an addiction to pornography, or that they can't live with the overwhelming guilt of a past abortion, or that they cannot bear the painful memories of having been sexually abused as children? I've given this a lot of thought over the years and I think I may have at least one answer: it's because of shame. Shame is normal in these situations though, right? Yes, indeed. But let's paint this picture in a different light, shall we?

Suppose the Church had the reputation for being the place for wounded people to go to find acceptance and wholeness -- as Jesus suggested in Luke 5:31: "It is not those who are well who need a physician, but those who are sick. Suppose the Church was the spiritual and emotional hospital He intended it to be, not the holy huddle of the we've-got-it-all-together crowd. What if instead the Church was the place for people to go when their lives became unmanageable?

That's what it started out as. But somehow, somewhere down the line it got all messed up and instead of being a place where broken people found healing, it became a place where broken people were judged or condemned or shamed for their brokenness. It became a place where those who found a measure of healing grabbed up stones to hurl at anyone that might dare to darken the door of their church if they so much as limped. Of course we don't do that anymore, for the most part. Most bible-believing churches today want the broken to come (on some level). The trouble is those that have found healing are too ashamed or fearful of sharing what that brokenness was. They're just so joyful at having been healed that they want to move on with their lives, and well, the fact that they found wholeness without having their sin exposed is all the better. No one need know, right? Besides, if people knew they might judge them or whisper about them behind their back. The result is that the voice of the one healed is silenced, and the incredible power of their testimony lies dormant like the talent the unfaithful servant buried in the ground. It is safe, and the servant knows exactly where his treasure is, but it isn't being multiplied for the master.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but wasn't Jesus surrounded by ex-lepers, ex-prostitutes, ex-beggars, and ex-tax collectors? And didn't the general population know all about what those people had been? The interesting thing is that the only ones that seemed to mind that Jesus ate with tax collectors and sinners were the Chief Priests and Pharisees. Somewhere down the line we let the Pharisees shame us for the very woundedness for which Christ died. We let them steal our voice and the incredible testimony of what our mighty God has done in our lives -- testimony that could enable others in similar circumstances to admit their own brokenness.

Isn't it time we took off our masks and let our brothers and sisters in Christ know what it was we've been healed of or need to be healed of? Isn't it time we put out the welcome mat to the broken and wounded so they too can find complete healing in Christ confident that we will accept them and walk beside them on their journey toward wholeness? It's only when we stop being ashamed of what Christ has healed us of that we can give hope for similar healing to others. (Or, one could ask, Are we really healed if we are still so ashamed we cannot tell others about it?)

As we take off our masks they will be free to remove theirs as well, and then they will no longer feel the need to hide their hurts. Because of our bold witness they will be able to find their own voice to tell us how they are hurting. Then, through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can begin to help them.