I Shall Remain an Unbeliever

One of our readings this week is from a chapter called Consequences of the Incarnation for Spirituality. The whole chapter is very powerful. In one section of the chapter the author recounts the story of the hemorrhaging woman. He writes that healing takes place in two parts. The bleeding stops by touching the Body of Christ – the people of Christ. We, the body, can dispense full, complete healing through Christ when someone confesses. See the gospel of Mark for the two parts of the story.

The part that resinates with me most from his chapter is this story. He writes, "Some years ago a Christian carried the lament of a woman who, with some bitterness, explained why she did not believe in God. Never in her explanation did she mention dogma, morals, or church authority. For her, the credibility of God and of Christ depended more on something else, the faces of Christians. Her complaint went something like this [I am including the last half: And don't talk to me of church. What does the church know of my despair – barricated behind its stained-glass windows agains the likes of me? I once sought repentance and community within your walls, but I saw your God reflected in your faces as you turned away from the likes of me. Forgiveness was never given me. The healing love that I sought was carefully hoarded, reserved for your own kind. So be gone from me and speak no more of God. I've seen your God made manifest in you and he is a God without compassion. So long as your God withholds the warmth of human touch from me, I shall remain an unbeliever."

Have you been the woman? Or have you been the church that she speaks of? When was the last time you offered forgiveness, whether to someone outside of the church or to someone in the church? Have you only hoarded healing love for your own kind? Your close friends? Have you asked for foregiveness and been turned away?

This reading calls the body of Christ to be just that, the body of Christ.