I read a few devotions from Yancey that all flowed together, all exceprts from the book, What’s So Amazing About Grace? The main theme was a discussion of what’s distinctive about the Church? How will people notice that the Church is different?
That’s where he brings up the metaphor of mirror or window. So often the Church and the churches that are part of it, seem to be more reflection of society than they are windows into a different reality. Now obviously we need to be able to communicate with society, but there has to be something different going on in our churches. We have to operate with grace as that’s the one thing the world can’t offer, can’t find outside the Church.
He closes by talking about how we sometimes forget this call to be windows to something different. He even pushes us with this thought and I like his words, so I’ll simply close with them and let you think and react. Remember, when he’s talking to keep the focus on grace, not merely a reaction against some of the politics of the day.
“Jesus was not crucified for being a good citizen, for being just a little nicer than everyone else. The powers of his day correctly saw him and his followers as subversives because they took orders form a highter power than Rome or Jerusalem. What would a subversive church look like in the modern United States?”
