03/27/2025
by Jim Angehr
Understanding Church Hurt
Hey everybody. I am Jim from Living Church, Collingswood, in the great state of new Jersey. I'll simply add to what Bruce and Glenn have said, to observe that from the perspective of the Liberty communion I serve on the Liberty Communion Lead team, we are overjoyed to be partnered with Covenant Church in the Gospel, and we have been hugely blessed by Covenant Church over many years already. And specifically, let me communicate to you from the liberty Clan that we love Steve Huber, your lead pastor. We love your pastors. We love your staff, we love all of the folks that we've interacted with over these years. I am the one that has represented the Liberty Community Liberty lead team, working with Bruce and the elder team, exploring the partnership with covenant. So it's been a wonderful connection. Set of conversations. Prayer for the Kingdom of God there. And thank you so much for being a wonderful church for our brother Steve that I've known. We've known for a lot of years. He is thrilled to be here, along with Christine and the Huber family. So much blessing has occurred and we look forward to much more to come as Jesus gives grace and mercy. So this morning we are going to be talking from Hebrews chapter two. I'll go ahead and read the verses now. For it was fitting that he for whom and by whom all things exist, and bringing many sons to glory, should make the founder of their salvation perfect through suffering. For he who sanctifies and those who are sanctified all have one source. That is why he is not ashamed to call them brothers, saying, I will tell of your name to my brothers. In the midst of the congregation, I will sing your praise, and again I will put my trust in him. And again behold, I and the children God has given me. This is God's Word and a true confession for you. I have four kids and especially when my kids were younger, I had all of these hopes and dreams for my children and prayers. Bottom line baseline I hoped, prayed, and dreamt that my kids as they get older and now I have two in college, one high schooler, one middle schooler. Big picture. I want them to follow Jesus all the days of their life. The rest is gravy. After that. But then as a younger dad, which I'm not anymore, there are some subsidiary dreams and hopes to. And one of them was, I would think to myself, wouldn't it be kind of great if I don't need all for my kids, but at least one of them, maybe two? This one would grow up and minister in God's kingdom full time, one way or another. Pastor, missionary in the church, overseas, parish, church, ministry, whatever it would be. And of course, the qualifier all vocations are given from God. Being a minister or a pastor isn't better than any other profession under the sun. All of those things being true. I thought to myself it would still be kind of nice. Like at least one of them build a mini legacy of ministry in the Angehr family. But here's the true confession part. Somewhere along the way, as the years have gone by, I stopped hoping and dreaming that for my kids. And in fact, a 180 occurred. When now, if one of my children would come up to me and say, dad, I want to go into ministry, I want to work in the church when I grow up. Heart of hearts. I would want to tell them, don't do it. I love you so much that I don't want this for you. Breaks my heart to realize that which is related to one of the reasons as to why I might feel that about my own kids covenant folks, if you were here yesterday, I mentioned one of those reasons. Here's another Merry Christmas. There's a lot of them. My son, my daughter. Don't go into ministry. Don't work in the church. Because the church will break your heart. The church will break your heart. Or any kind of ministry. Sometimes I feel like I am the man that has seen too much. And we are the people that have seen too much. If you've been in the church for a while. There's a headlines about horrible things that happen in churches across our country and around the world. All those things are true. Well, not all of them. Many of them are. Not every accusation is true, but there's a lot of bad stuff that's happened for sure. And then personal experiences. What happens all too often in the church where there's conflicts, there's fights, there's betrayals. People leave. And on top of all of that conflictual stuff, I was talking with a couple of people yesterday at Liberty Leadership Day that was hosted here. We had a wonderful time. Thank you that if you're in the church, you're connected in the Holy Spirit with a lot of people. Your community, your circle of care grows, but that gives you a front row seat to that much more suffering and pain. When you learn of more hard things that happened to brothers and sisters in the Lord. And then accumulation occurs. The car accidents, the cancers, the lost jobs, the divorces, the abuses over and over and over again. The church will break your heart. Church hurt. Church harm. Hard things happening in the church are real. And maybe you've experienced some of those things yourself. It happens and so we can carry around with us, even as followers of Jesus, a deep disillusionment and discouragement with the church.
What the Bible Says About Church Hurt and Forgiveness
The theme of Liberty Leadership Day yesterday. And we address this question from different perspectives and in different ways throughout the day. But it seems like your relevant question, is the church still worth it? Is the church the worth it? After all? And that's what I want to talk about this morning. I feel the weight of that question, and I feel the hurt and the discouragement I do. And I'd love to tell you that, hey, church is never going to break your heart. It's not true. Sometimes it does, but humbly yet boldly, I would wish to proclaim to you that church is worth it. The answer is still yes. Because you know who else gives a yes to the question? Is a church still worth it? Jesus, for our Lord and Savior who died on the cross and rose again. Church is still worth it. That's why he died. And so as I was preparing for this message, praying for this Sunday, my prayer was, Lord and people that you bring today, would you kindle or rekindle Jesus joy for the church in us? Three parts from here. Let's talk from Hebrews chapter two. Jesus shares solidarity of suffering with the church. First part solidarity of suffering with the church. Second part Jesus shares solidarity of joy in the church. Third part so should we, Jesus share solidarity of suffering with the church, solidarity of joy in the church. And we should too. From Hebrews chapter two. So some of you may be familiar with the book of Hebrews. It's one of the later books in the New Testament. We don't know for sure who wrote it. It's a letter, a longer one, that, from various perspectives, speaks of the supremacy of Jesus in all things. And towards the beginning of the letter, including the first couple of chapters here the author of Hebrews talks about the superior superiority of Jesus to angels. Kind of like this Jesus talk. The author of Hebrews talks about all of the great stuff that Jesus does and is and then kind of says, can angels do that? The answer is no. Jesus is great. He is supreme, and he is unique in what he's able to do. So let's take a closer look. It's kind of like this. It is the will of the sovereign Father to redeem a people by a suffering Savior. It is the will of the Sovereign Father to redeem of people by a suffering Savior. Verse ten. For it was fitting that he, that's God the Father, for whom and by whom all things exist, and bringing many sons to glory should make the founder of their salvation perfect. That's Jesus, the founder of our salvation, perfect through suffering. Now we need to read this carefully. Perfect through suffering does not mean to imply that before Jesus suffered and died on the cross, that he was imperfect in any way, that there is any flaw, that there is any sin in him. Hebrews itself later on in this book, says explicitly Jesus was without sin. So this idea of Jesus being perfected in the course of his ministry carries with it the weight and the original language. Here in the ancient Greek of completion, Jesus was brought to completion in his ministry career as he suffered. And there is something incomplete about the will of the father for Jesus to save a people, to redeem of people without that suffering component culminating in the cross where Jesus died, a suffering Savior. And we share the same source we in Jesus our Father. Verse 11, for he who sanctifies, that's Jesus and those who are sanctified all have one source and sanctified here, probably a little different from how the Apostle Paul uses the word. That's okay. Sanctified here stands in kind of for all of salvation, with an accent on how Jesus makes us holy. The Holy One, through his crucifixion and resurrection, makes us who receive him by faith holy as well. And in an analogous way, Jesus, who is sent by the father, and we who are brought back to the father by the son, we have the same source, the father. So Jesus, in effect, exercises a double solidarity with us, same source, and in suffering as well. So we can ask the question this way. What does Jesus suffering have to do with our suffering? What does Jesus suffering have to do with our suffering in the church? How are those things connected? Qualifier as they talk about suffering in various ways as I have and as I'll continue to do here? I mean, in no way to belittle or diminish suffering. It is real and it is hard. But. Not one of the intents of when the sovereign Lord brings suffering into our lives per se, more the effect what happens when you and I suffer in Jesus? When you and I suffer in Jesus, in the church, we actually get to learn a little bit more about Jesus. We grow closer to him. There is a solidarity in suffering that's exorcized as we grow closer. The Apostle Paul, for example, in his letter to the Colossians, is getting at a similar idea when he says, now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake. The Colossian church and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body. That is, the church. Is Paul's suffering for the church sacrificial in the ways that Jesus was? No. Jesus said on the cross, it is finished. He completed our salvation. We have nothing to add to the salvific process, but there is still the will of the church to follow Jesus in every way, including Paul. And in a fallen world that includes suffering. And so as we suffer, we learn more about the Jesus who suffered for us and with us. Now, in your heart of hearts, you might be going, Jim Gaffigan voice. That doesn't sound good at all.
Overcoming Pain: Rebuilding Trust in the Church
But I'll repeat something to you that I heard from a pastor friend of mine years and years ago. Suffering happens. We can't avoid it. But suffering always does something. Suffering will either make you, over time, bitter or beautiful. For every human being in the church, outside of the church. Follower of Jesus, not a follower of Jesus, North, south, east and west. Suffering over time will either make you bitter or beautiful. It doesn't leave you the same, and you can probably think in your own minds of examples in either direction, whether it's an older person or a younger person. And sometimes you look at some of those folks and say they're really angry. They're really bitter. And then you learn, man, there have been some really hard things that have happened in their life. And I lament, I mourn for this person. I feel for this person. I empathize with this person. But wow, that suffering has twisted this person into a deeply embittered place. Or on the other hand, we all are able to think, I hope, of people in our minds. Where we know that these folks, these dear ones, have endured a ton of hard stuff. But you're surprised, sometimes awestruck, and think, wow, they are so kind. They are so gentle. And you realize the suffering in this person's life has had a beautifying effect. A softness, a humility that comes only through suffering inexorably. That's what happens with suffering. But let church, the Church of Jesus Christ, be the place par excellence for you and for me, where suffering turns us beautiful. Where we have each other's backs. And keep each other from becoming embittered. Where we remind each other, Jesus loves you and I love you. Jesus died for you and we're in your corner too. Let's work on this together. And bit by bit, this is part of how Jesus makes us more holy. That holy beauty of being softened by suffering. That's a Holy Spirit work. You can't counterfeit that. And that occurs in the church. And when we suffer in Jesus exercising that solidarity of suffering, it's as if the ship's rigging. I was a sailor for a lot of years. The ship's rigging, which sometimes isn't always being stressed. All of a sudden it is based on a certain wind or something. I was not a sailor. I was just kidding about that. But I've seen movies, a strong gust of wind. All of a sudden the rigging that wasn't doing a lot of work does. When you suffer that suffering, rigging activates Jesus. This is really hard, even if it's suffering related to the church somehow, or if the church is breaking your heart. Jesus, I understand more. I wish you didn't at one level, but I'm getting more and more what you must have felt and experienced when you suffered for the church, either on the cross, maybe when Jesus denied or when Peter denied you three times. Jesus. Maybe when you asked your disciples and get so many, I really need you right now. Can you stay awake with me? We learn more of Jesus in these moments. And if you're here this morning, skeptical of Christianity, the gospel spirituality. Maybe one of the reasons. Or maybe you're being pulled into that direction and you've been in the church for a while. You've been a follower of Jesus for a while. Maybe part of that momentum and process is you're just turned off by all of the church over time. Maybe you've experienced some of it yourself. The church is breaking my heart. Or I see other people, the church, breaking their heart to man. This is just too much for me, I get it, but I would suggest to you also that that is not the whole story. It grabs headlines. But church hurt is not the whole story. One of the books being passed around pastoral circles right now, Tom Holland, not the one that was bitten by a radioactive spider. The other one, the scholar, a book called Dominion, which in great detail goes through how the church has had powerful, salutary good effects upon the world in a myriad of ways. All of the things that we take for granted as good things, Christian and non-Christian, here in the West came from the church. The church has done a ton of good. And when churches serve others well, either within the community or outside of the community, that doesn't make headlines. It's only when it blows up. That's what grabs the algorithm. So church hurt and church pain is not the whole story, in fact. And this is somebody who's been around the block with church for a while, by God's grace, that's the minority report. Decisively. It's not the majority report. One of my reading lanes. I like to read books and collections of nonfiction essays. One of my favorites over the past few years was a collection of essays by a guy named John Jeremiah Sullivan. Pulp head is the name of the book. It's a fun collection of essays and one of the essays. Sullivan takes an investigative journalistic trip to the Creation Festival, which is the Giant Music Festival. Is it close to here? I actually did I meant to pull that up. So, giant Christian music music festival that I believe tailed off during Covid. But for a lot of years it drew 75,0 hundred. Has anybody here been to the Creation Festival? Okay, so so there we go. John Jeremiah Sullivan. Went there and he's not a follower of Jesus and wrote this long form journalistic article about what he experienced there. And sure, he found some quirky things, but his bottom line was these people are really nice. Guess. This this is how he put it. Sullivan has written, but I've been to a lot of huge public events in this country during the past five years, writing about sports or whatever, and one thing they all had in common was this weird implicit enmity that American males in particular seem to carry around with them much of the time. Call it a laughable generalization. Fine, but if you spend enough late afternoons in stadium concourses, you feel it something darker than machismo, something a little wounded, a little sneering and just plain ready for bad things to happen. But it wasn't here. It was just not. I looked for it and they couldn't find it. And the three days I spent a creation, I saw not one fight, heard not one word, spoken in anger, felt at no time even mildly harassed, and in fact met many people who were exceptionally kind. Yes, they were all of the same race. White people all believe the same stuff and weren't drinking, but there were also 1,0 of them. Something like that didn't grab the algorithm, but it's in the book is saying, well, these people actually are really good. So there's hurting the church, but there's also a lot of wholeness and a lot of healing. And where else do we find the resources that enables us and our suffering to become beautiful? In John's Gospel, Jesus says some hard things. In John chapter six, a lot of people leave. Jesus looks to the disciples and said, are you going to? But you remember the reply, Lord, to who are we going to go to, Lord? To whom would we go? You have the words of eternal life in a derivative way, Lord, for all of the heartbreak, sometimes where would I go? Except here? There is healing and wholeness in the church of Jesus Christ. And I'll flip that around for just a moment. It's increasingly clear to me today, more than five years ago, more than ten years ago, more than 15 years ago. Friends, you were not going to find similar wholeness in the hardcore secular ideologies, either of the right or of the left. Those receipts are coming in and are piling up. And add to that radicalization of ideology, plus your own suffering. If you run in those directions and leave Jesus, it's going to make you bitter. Even secular voices are beginning to realize this more. They don't know what to do with it. But wow. As you go more whole hog in either of these directions, everybody's becoming more angsty, more angry, more anxious, more on edge, more oppositional, defined, where my identity is bound up in who I'm against. I know who I am because I know who I hate. And as I've followed different think pieces about the November elections, it's been observed that this is the most oppositional defined election on record, where more than ever before, people were not voting for the candidate or the party that they liked, they were voting against the other candidate. More than that, voting against the other party, more than that, voting against the people in the other party where I might not like this candidate, but I sure hate them and I want to platform them and give them more power. So I'm going here. Those ideologies will end bitter you. They will not make you whole. But Jesus does Jesus also share a solidarity of joy with us? For a lot of years, I didn't quite know what to make of verses 12 and 13 of Hebrews chapter two. Here are just some Old Testament quotes that are attributed to Jesus. I never quite got it, but I think the key as the years have gone on, it makes it beautiful for me is the end of verse 11. That is why he, Jesus, is not ashamed to call them brothers or brothers and sisters, saying, I will tell of your name to my brothers. In the midst of the congregation I will sing your praise, and again I will put my trust in him. And again, behold, I and the children God has given me. When Jesus considers the church, he feels joy and is not ashamed. When Jesus considers the church, he feels joy and is not ashamed. In verse 12, that's a quote from Psalm 22, A Psalm of David in the Hebrew Scriptures. I will tell of your name to my brothers. In the midst of the congregation. I will sing your praise over the Christmas holidays, my two boys were back from college. So is an anchor family of six singing in church together at Liberty, Collingswood. It was awesome and just looking down the pew. Wow! Jesus. Thank you that I'm singing with my family church wide. I don't know if I'm a good harmonica player, but I'm the lead pastor at Liberty Collingswood, which means the harmonica player plays on music team once a month. And on Music team just this past Sunday. Normal January Sunday morning, the first song I almost missed the cue to start playing because I heard the congregation singing. And I was struck. Jesus, thank you that I am here in the midst of the congregation. Jesus feels similar joy as we sing here on Sunday mornings together. And again I will put my trust in him prophetically. Jesus leads us into trusting in the father. Behold, I and the children God has given me. These are from Isaiah chapter eight. The Old Testament prophet, behold, I and the children God has given me. I've been married to Emily for 25 years and counting, got engaged at the end of college, from New Orleans, went to college in New Hampshire. There was an engagement party, party thrown for me in New Orleans. And many of my friends from high school and earlier hadn't met Emily before. I remember going to that party, and I had a stupid grin on my face all night. Here she is. Isn't she lovely? Share my joy in her. This is how Jesus feels about his bride, the church, and all the more father, aunties, brothers and sisters, great! I'm so proud to call them my brothers and sisters. I love being here and that's profound. That means for you individually, if you believe in Jesus. If you believe in Jesus. Jesus knows you. Jesus loves you. And because he died for you, he is not ashamed of you. If you believe in Jesus, Jesus knows you. Jesus loves you. And because he died for you, he is not ashamed of you. If you believe in Jesus, Jesus knows you. Jesus loves you. And because he died for you, he is not ashamed of you and. And the you plural. Because he died for us. He loves us. He's not ashamed of us. He is honored to call us brothers and sisters, by grace and by grace alone.
Steps Toward Healing and Reconciliation in the Church
Jesus knows the sins and failings of the church better than anyone, but he loves the church more than everyone. Jesus knows the sins and failings of the church more than anyone, but loves the church better than everyone. And how dare we love his church less? So let's share his joy. The pain that we can experience in church is real. I'll say that one more time. Process it. Processing is good. Don't bury it. But also don't get stuck there. Try to process it so that you can move through it by God's grace and mercy. That is a process. But hear me as well that the Church of Jesus Christ and join the Church of Jesus Christ is worth fighting for. It's worth rolling up your sleeves and saying, this is hard, but this is worth it. I'm not going to tap out. I'm going to dig in. Eugene Peterson, as a recently deceased pastor, took a sabbatical a few years ago. I'm due for another one. Time flies. Nothing really happened over the past seven years. When you're having fun and in ministry. But I read his memoir about being a pastor. To rekindle my love for my own church. And at one point, Peterson looks out of his people and finds that love rekindled. He says about him and his wife, we were learning how to submit ourselves to the Spirit's formation of congregation. Out of this mixed bag of humanity that was us broken, hobbling, crippled, sexually abused, spiritually abused, emotionally unstable, passive, passive aggressive, neurotic men and women. Chuck, at 50, who has failed a dozen times and knows that he will never amount to anything. Mary, who had been ignored and scorned and abused in a marriage in which she remained faithful. Phyllis living with children and a spouse in deep addictions, lepers and blind and deaf and dumb sinners, also fresh converts excited to be in on this new life spirited young people, energetic and eager to be guided into a life of love and compassion. Mission and evangelism A few seasoned saints who know sometimes how to pray and listen and endure, and a considerable number of people who pretty much just showed up. I sometimes wonder why they bothered. There they are. The hot, the cold, the lukewarm Christians, half Christians, almost Christians, New Agers, angry Catholics, sweet new converts. I didn't choose them. I didn't get to choose them. But Peterson, the pastor, says, these are my people and they're lovely. Would you fight in similar ways to say, these are my brothers and sisters? Behold, I am the children of God. You have given me to share what might be your step there. And this is where we'll wrap up. So if joining the church is worth fighting for, in our part, it was also Jesus who believed the same thing. The church is worth fighting for. That's why he suffered and died. Jesus said the church is worth it. And Psalm 22, from which we get this quote in Hebrews 212, I will tell of your name to my brothers. In the midst of the congregation, I will sing your praise. Some of you might not have. Psalm 22 begins, repeated by Jesus on the cross, My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Where he paid the penalty for our sin, where he endured God's wrath for the sins that we deserve condemnation for Jesus paid it all for us. But the author of Hebrews later in this letter says, Jesus, for the joy set before him endured the cross, scorning the shame. And by that, in the language of this passage, in doing so, he brings many sons to glory, and with great joy. So should we be joyful in the name of the father, and of the son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen. Pray with me. Heavenly father, thank you for gathering us here. This morning and for wherever we find ourselves, either with you or with churches or with the church. Jesus, draw us more to yourself. Back in love with you in the gospel. Ready to do another round of living in community and worship and mercy in the context of the church. Jesus, thank you for your crucifixion and resurrection. And we pray in your name. Amen.
