William Sloane Coffin once astutely observed: “It is often said that the church is a crutch. Of course it’s a crutch. What makes you think you don’t limp?” We’re all a bunch of cripples, are we not, we who are members of the church? We’re not whole in any way, shape or form. We are crippled by our pasts, each of us and all of us together. To think that the church is made up of whole and sound people is to miss what the church is all about. It is a hospital for the crippled, those made weak by their sins. The healthy need not apply.
To realize our ill health, to admit that we are not whole, to recognize our need for help – all that is the first step in getting healthier: healthier. There will never be a time when we are completely whole, in total health; not in this life anyway. While we are trying to get better, become less crippled, we often find ourselves taking two steps forward for every step backward, and sometimes it is just the opposite. We are all cripples. What is worse, most of our pain is also self-inflicted. Every time we think we have made some progress towards better spiritual health, we do something sinful and stupid that drags us back a peg or two.
We limp along day by day by day hoping we will get just a little better, limp a little less and not do anything to make the limp even worse. Some days we succeed and some days we fail and often fail miserably. That is the first truth about life in this life. The second truth we need to acknowledge is that we cannot get better all by ourselves even as we sometimes try to do so. We all are in need of help, no exceptions. The one place we know we can find that help is with and among our fellow cripples, in that community of the sick we call our church.
We all need a crutch to lean on at times. The church is indeed our crutch. The church as that community of cripples is that place where we help one another become stronger and healthier and better. We support one another in our individual journeys in faith because we know that is the only way we can make the trip: together. Trying to go it alone only insures our failure. The trek is too long, too difficult and we are too crippled to make it all by ourselves.
That is not a sign of failure. It is only an admission of the truth. Yes, it is an admission of our weakness. But if we refuse to confess that weakness, even profess it, we are only making our life worse. It is only the fool and the too proud who will not use the crutch. It is the wise and the humble who reach out and grab the crippled hand of the other so that together they can limp along together, slowly but surely, on the journey in faith.
We are all wounded. Our wounds are inflicted by the sins of others and are self-inflicted because of our own. They may not be evident. But they are there and they are very real and they make cripples of all of us. That is why we gather as a community of faith, crippled, limping along, supporting one another, being a crutch one to another, loving one another to healthier and more whole spiritual lives. Yes, it is difficult these days because of the virus, but these days will pass and we can extend the hand of help once again.
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