The Church Is Not Ours!!

A Church is a place where everyone is welcome. There is neither rich nor poor, sinner nor righteous, big nor small; it is a haven for all. A place to share our love, joys, and sorrow. Ultimately, it is a place that unites the people of God. However, looking from an emic lens, it seems the Church has become a ground for the many wrong things that happen in society. One reason is the power struggle among the believers (especially leaders), which everyone can see. It can be inferred that believers seem to think that the Church is theirs to claim. Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew 16:18 mentioned who is the supreme owner of the Church when he said, “And I tell you, you are Peter (Petros in Greek), and on this rock (Petra in Greek) I will build my Church, and the gates of Hades will not prevail against it.” The verse is crystal clear about who the supreme leader of the Church is.

            Let us exegete the critical part of the text a little bit. First, the Greek connotation of Petra shows a difference between Peter’s name (Petros) and the rock on which Christ is building the Church. The word Petra (in context) that Jesus refers to here is not Peter but, on the understanding and basis that he is the Messiah/deliverer/redeemer. And on that basis, Jesus is building the Church even today. Then he continues saying, “I will build my Church,” not you will build my Church. But then, when we forget this essential idea that it is Christ, the one who builds the Church and not us, the Church falls apart. Worldly things start creeping into the Church, hence the issues that surround the Church now. We try building it ourselves but we do it in vain because it is not our duty.

The intent of Christ here is not to make us feel alien towards the Church but to make us feel welcome through him and him only. A person is not the sole owner of the Church, but we (believers) in and through Christ are caretakers and partakers of the Church, where Christ is the head, and we are his branches. As believers in Christ, let us, therefore, be reminded that Christ is the one who owns and builds the Church; let us not treat the Church as our sole property. And let us be guided by the spirit of our God, not by ourselves, so that God can dwell in our Church richly. 

Photo by Renato Rocca: https://www.pexels.com/photo/stone-building-in-the-village-of-abella-catalonia-spain-9842536/