The Inverted Church

There's a funny thing going on at your local gathering of believers. There is an inversion happening. Here, let me explain.

In the world today, we look to the talented, the smart, the educated to lead us. Those are the ones we admire. Those are the "special" people. And, I suppose, to some degree it's understandable that this would be so ... in the world. On the other hand, the Bible says that something different is at work in the Body of Christ.

We learn, for instance, that "God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no human being might boast in the presence of God" (1 Cor 1:28-29). That's not quite how the world would view it. We read that "the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another" (1 Cor 12:22-25). Now, that's a turnabout from the world. The greater honor, in the Body of Christ, goes to the less presentable parts, the parts that lack honor.

This is a running theme in the Church. He who would save his life must lose it. The one who gives all is the one who has the most. The least member is the highest honored. He who would be first should be last. And so it goes.

In the worship service, again, there is a turnabout, an inversion. While we tend to think of the preacher and the leaders in front as the preeminent components of the service, it turns out that they're just prompters. The audience there is not the congregation, but God Himself. And the performers are not the people up in front, but the congregation. You see? Inverted.

The Church is full of these sorts of things, seemingly unnatural turns and inversions of the world's perspective that God uses to keep us focused on Him, not ourselves. It glorifies Him and prevents boasting in us. The world tells us that we need to be "the best of the best." The "least of these", in the Church, is a good place to be. So, in whatever you're doing for the Lord, aim low.