TERRIBLE AS AN ARMY WITH BANNERS!

C.S. Lewis wrote a great book called “The Screwtape Letters.” The book is like letters written by a senior demon tempter named Screwtape, that he writes to a junior tempter about how best to pry a human being away from faith in God. This is what Screwtape writes: "One of our great allies in this is the Church itself. Do not misunderstand me. I do not mean the Church as we see her, spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners. That, I confess, is a spectacle which makes our boldest tempters uneasy, but fortunately, it is quite invisible to these human beings.” It is a great book.

Part of what Lewis is to make a fundamental distinction. There is, on the one hand, what might be called the Church (capital C)…the body of Christ… "spread out through all time, and space, and rooted in eternity, an army with banners," and what we often see is what might be called the church (little c)…the buildings, pews, programs, and people going to services. The danger is if the “little c church,” is all we see…we miss the vision of the great Jesus-fueled mission in the world.

In Luke 9, we read this, “And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal. And he said to them, 'Take nothing for your journey, no staff, nor bag, nor bread, nor money; and do not have two tunics. And whatever house you enter, stay there, and from there depart…And they departed and went through the villages, preaching the gospel and healing everywhere.’”

When Jesus first called these 12 guys, they got a front pew seat to hear Jesus teach, and see him perform great miracles. They thought, “When it comes to Jesus, we get to watch.” That is until Jesus said one day, "That's not the plan. You get to GO. This is not actually a come-and-watch movement; this is actually a go-and-do kind of movement."  And, what do they take? Jesus says, "Nothing…no staff, no bag, no money, not even an extra tunic… because now my Father (the God of manna, the God of our daily bread) is involved and He'll provide. And, you're going to see stuff, Church, you won't believe."

It’s a funny thing…generally, through history, you will find the Church flourishing mostly where people do not have many staffs, or bags, or tunics. When people have a lot of bags and a lot of tunics (and a lot of us have a lot of bags, a lot of tunics),…every once in a while, we get really generous, and really humble, and really good stuff starts to happen. But more often, we get kind of self-sufficient and we start thinking to ourselves, “Man, if God had all of MY resources, and all of MY skills, and all of MY stuff,…any church would be really lucky to have MY help.” …and, we miss out on the miracle of the Church… "spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners."

Jesus did not say, "I am looking for some spectators who will come to some little building once a week and watch." He said, "I'm looking for followers who will go and do." Some did… and something great started. Something started with nothing, no money, no bag, no staff, no extra tunic, and no power. Something was starting that God would use to touch the world,… something that would "spread out through all time and space and rooted in eternity, terrible as an army with banners."

There has never been anything like the Church! There is nothing like the Church!