The Desert and the Wellspring

I have become increasingly convinced that a low view of the Church leaves a person alone in the desert with his thoughts.

I do not mean a low view of the Church aesthetically. I do not mean that someone dislikes liturgy, old buildings, vestments, or tradition.

I mean a low view of what the Church actually is.

Alone in the Desert

If the Church is mostly a gathering of individual believers who come together to hear teaching, sing, and encourage one another, then the Christian life still mostly takes place inside the individual mind.

You read.

You interpret.

You think.

You examine yourself.

You ask whether your faith is genuine. You ask whether there is enough fruit. You ask whether you have repented enough. You ask whether your assurance is real or whether you are deceiving yourself.

You are left alone with your thoughts.

That is a kind of desert life.

There are times when the desert has a purpose. Christ Himself went into the wilderness. There are times when we are stripped of comfort and forced to confront what is in us.

But the desert is not meant to become our home.

The Church Is the Wellspring

The Church is the wellspring.

Christ said that He would give living water. He did not only give us true propositions about Himself. He gave us Himself.

This is where the theanthropic nature of the Church matters.

The Church is not merely an organization founded by Christ. She is His Body. She is both human and filled with divine life. When we gather in the liturgy with the Body of Christ, we are not merely thinking about Him or remembering Him. We are encountering Him in a real and tangible way.

The life of Christ is actually given to us.

This is deeply incarnational.

God did not save us by giving us an idea. The Word became flesh. He entered the physical world. He took on a real body. He touched people. He ate with them. He healed them. He gave them His flesh and blood.

Christianity is not meant to become something that happens only in the mind.

How Does a Protestant Encounter the Incarnation?

That leads me to a question I have not been able to get away from.

How does a Protestant actually encounter the Incarnation in the real?

The answer is usually that we encounter Christ in Scripture.

I understand that answer. I love Scripture. Scripture is inspired and authoritative. It tells us who Christ is and what He has done.

But when I go to Scripture, I still have to read it and interpret it.

I am still in my own mind.

I read the words. I consider their meaning. I compare passages. I listen to arguments. I decide which interpretation is right.

Even when I am sincerely trying to submit to Christ, the whole encounter can remain mental.

Told to Look Away, Sent Back Inward

This is where the problem becomes more obvious.

Protestants are often told not to look inward, but to look to Christ. I have heard Reformed pastors say this many times, and I believe they mean it.

But where do they tell the person to go?

They tell him to return to Scripture.

So he reads again.

He interprets again.

He examines himself again.

He asks whether he truly believes what he is reading.

He asks whether his response is genuine.

He asks whether his life shows enough evidence.

The instruction is to look away from yourself, but the theology keeps sending you back into yourself.

Without a visible Church that can truly bind and loose, without the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and without a theanthropic understanding of the Church, there is nothing objective to offer the believer outside of the proposition itself and his own response to it.

The preacher may tell him that Christ is enough.

But how does he actually receive Christ?

He is told that there is living water.

He may even be given a map to the well.

But he is not brought to the well itself.

Brought to the Well Itself

The Orthodox understanding is different.

Scripture does not merely leave us with information about Christ. It brings us into the life of His Body.

The liturgy is not simply a religious meeting.

The Eucharist is not merely a reminder.

The Church is not simply a group of people who agree about Jesus.

The Church is His Body.

It is where the Incarnation is encountered as something living, physical, sacramental, and real.

The Christian life is not meant to be lived in the jail of the mind.

It is meant to be lived in Christ.

And Christ gives Himself to us in His Body.