Wounded by the Church, Still Called Home

Attitudes Shaped by Grace | Day 32

“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:24-25, NIV)

A warm good morning to every one of you. Many congregations print a photo directory every few years, page after page of families in their Sunday best. Leaf through an old one and familiar faces turn up that we have not seen in worship for a long time. Some moved away. Some have gone home to be with the Lord. And some stopped coming because something happened inside that church that hurt them. This morning is for them, and for all of us who still notice the spaces they left.

When the Wound Came From Inside

Church hurt takes many shapes. Sometimes it is a harsh word from someone we trusted. Sometimes it is a story about our family that traveled faster than the truth, or a hard season handled carelessly by the very people who should have handled it with the most care. Sometimes it is a loss so heavy that we waited for someone from church to call, and no one did. We expect the world to wound us. We do not expect it in the place where we went for peace, and that is why it cuts so deep. Not every painful word is a wound, since a loving admonition from Scripture can sting and still be faithful. But when believers wound a brother or sister, it is sin, and nothing in God’s Word asks the wounded person to pretend it was not. Where a wrong still needs to be addressed, that work belongs to the people responsible and to the leaders the congregation has called.

The world has a ready answer for that kind of hurt: protect ourselves, never go back, and keep faith private, since no one needs a congregation to believe. Our sinful nature agrees quickly, because staying away feels safer than risking the same pain twice. Our distance can reveal something deeper. We have let the failures of God’s people speak louder in us than the faithfulness of God himself. If we are truthful, most of us have also stood on the other side of that story, as the one whose words or silence left someone else sitting farther back, or not coming at all. Both kinds of hurt need the same Savior, and he has not withheld himself from either.

The letter to the Hebrews was written to believers who had endured insults and hardship for their faith, and some among them had stopped gathering with the rest. The writer urged them, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” (Hebrews 10:24-25, NIV). He knew some had stopped coming, and he said so plainly. He did not tell them to gather because the people in the room would be perfect. The Day he points to is the day Jesus Christ returns. It is not a deadline hanging over anyone. It is the hope that makes every gathering between now and then worth the effort.

He Who Promised Is Faithful

One sentence earlier, the writer gives the reason to keep gathering. “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” (Hebrews 10:23, NIV). The writer does not say that everyone who sits beside us is faithful. The one who promised is faithful. A congregation can let us down. The Lord who meets us there never has. That is why we gather. Christ has promised to come to us in his Word preached, in the forgiveness our pastor speaks in his name, and in his body and blood at his table. Faith is fed where his Word is heard, and staying away leaves faith hungry. That is not a verdict on anyone who has been away. It is an open invitation to come and eat.

Isaiah saw the Savior’s own rejection centuries before it happened. “He was despised and rejected by mankind, a man of suffering, and familiar with pain. Like one from whom people hide their faces he was despised, and we held him in low esteem.” (Isaiah 53:3, NIV). Those words were fulfilled in Jesus Christ. The people who knew the Scriptures best, and who should have welcomed him first, were among those who turned their faces away. Whatever was done to us in a church, we do not bring it to a Savior who has never been rejected. We bring it to the one Isaiah described.

Matthew shows how this Savior treats people who come to him hurt. Quoting another prophecy of Isaiah, he writes of Jesus, “A bruised reed he will not break, and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out, till he has brought justice through to victory.” (Matthew 12:20, NIV). A bruised reed is bent but not yet broken. A smoldering wick is barely burning. Jesus does not finish breaking what other people bent, and he does not blow out a faith that has grown dim. He also brings justice through to victory. No wrong done in his church escapes his sight, and the case belongs to him, so we do not have to keep carrying it ourselves in order to come home.

Paul wrote to a congregation in Corinth that was troubled by quarrels, and he still told them, “Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.” (1 Corinthians 12:27, NIV). Hurt does not remove a believer from that body, and the body is missing something while a member is away. Coming home does not always mean returning to the same congregation where the hurt happened. Sometimes the Lord leads us to a different congregation where his Word is faithfully taught and his Sacraments are rightly given. What matters most is coming back to the place where Christ has promised to be.

The Holy Spirit is also at work in those of us who never left. Through the Word he makes us gentle with every bruised reed we know. We can think of one face from that old directory and make a call. We listen long before we say anything about coming back. We extend our table before we extend an invitation to a pew. Where we were the ones who caused the hurt, we say so and ask forgiveness. We cannot argue anyone home. The Holy Spirit brings people back through his Word, and he often uses the patience of a friend who kept calling.

Everything rests on Jesus Christ. He was despised and rejected so that we would be received by God. He carried to the cross every sin that has wounded someone in his church, the ones done to us and the ones done by us, together with the sins of the whole world, and he paid for every one of them with his life. He rose from the dead, and he still gathers his people around his Word and at his table. The faces we miss in that old directory are not missing from his sight. He who promised is faithful, and Jesus Christ is still calling them, and us, home.

Prayer

Heavenly Father, you see every hurt that was done inside your church, including the ones I still carry. I confess that I have let the failures of your people speak louder in me than your faithfulness, and that my own words and silence have wounded others who came looking for you. Forgive me for the sake of Jesus Christ, and heal what I cannot heal myself.

Lord Jesus, thank you for being despised and rejected for my sake, and for never breaking the bruised reed or snuffing out a faith that has grown dim. Thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit, who brings me back to your Word and your table. Be near everyone who has stepped away because of pain, and lead them to a congregation where your Word is faithfully taught. Make me gentle and patient with them, and give me the courage to make the call. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.

It means a great deal that you opened God’s Word here this morning. Still ahead are the first believers in Jerusalem, who met together with glad and sincere hearts, and we will see what made their gathering such a joy.

To God be the glory.

Pray, praise, and give thanks, for God is good and His mercy endures forever.

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