This writer joins many Jamaicans in welcoming the announcement by over 3000 church leaders on the island that practically all the major Christian groups will rise up and tackle the murder, mayhem, violence and other sociopolitical ills now ruining the nation. In a timely editorial on September 19, “Faith without works is dead”, the Sunday Observer hit the nail on the head in advising those church leaders where to begin. This column uses a line from a Christian hymn as headline to remind those leaders of the biblical mandate of the church. For in the final analysis it is neither what churches say nor how much they pray but what they do that will establish their relevance in this 21st century.

The visible church of denominations, clergy and buildings with steeples is just an outward human expression of the true church comprising believers in Yeshua Messiah, that is, those who have been immersed into the kingdom of the Christ by the Holy Spirit. Members of the true church are known 100 per cent only to themselves and to God. The true church acts as salt and light preserving and guiding humanity. It moves mankind from evil to goodness and from sin to salvation, but often does so within the parameters of the visible church. There is little or no problem with the true church doing the will of God on earth and its members are sometimes ridiculed or killed for speaking and living the truth. Unfortunately, the visible church sometimes becomes all things to all people and often outdoes the world in evildoing.

This writer long ago rejected the flawed definitions of evil preached by some church leaders who lash out against women wearing wrong clothing, against people listening to wrong music and against risking one dollar to win more. Evil is anything not done out of love for God and humanity. As such, murders, thievery, lies, immorality, exploitation, and abuses lead the list of evils, as catalogued in scripture. When the visible church practises evil or fails to stand against it, the church is missing the mark and is failing both God and humanity. If the visible church is to be relevant at all it must preach and practise the kingdom standards of the true church. In other words, let the church be the church.

Dogma and denominationalism do not a church make. Church people are called out from among the “unchurched” to practise the love of Christ among themselves and to be the conscience of the world. There is ample evidence in Acts and the Gospels to show church people how to live like the true church of Christ. For example, no church member in Acts went to sleep hungry and none had to do without clothing and shelter, because every church member shared their possessions and leaders saw to it that all members were comfortable. In a sermon at a Harvest Thanksgiving Service in Westmoreland, I once challenged the pastor to think about how many of his poorer members went to bed hungry after giving their breadfruits, bananas, yams, mangoes and other crops to the church to be sold and the money placed in a fat bank account for the church. Jesus observed that poor people would always exist, but he never said poor people had to starve or live uncomfortably because it is the duty of the church to help the poor. To rescue the perishing and care for the dying is not just to preach the gospel but to practise the giving of gracious gifts to those in need. In Matthew 25 Jesus summarised this practice as clothing the naked, feeding the hungry, healing the sick, sheltering the stranger and visiting those in prison. Pauline theology teaches that the church is being the church when it takes care of its own poor and needy people first, and afterwards helps others not belonging to the immediate flock.

Jamaican churches must be careful to practise true kingdom living, bearing in mind that numerous evils, including inquisitions, crusade wars, slavery and racism have been promoted by Christian churches even though church leaders have helped in peace movements, abolition, civil rights and other freedom initiatives.

Government is becoming a slave master while politicians and government agencies are the slave drivers. The masses need help to lift this heavy yoke from their necks and the church owes it to them and to God to provide such help. Banks and other businesses are ripping off poor Jamaicans with big fees and high interest rates. The church must take a stand. Morality, standards, decency and lawfulness lie dead in Jamaica’s streets and the church alone can effect their resurrection through God’s power. Since both the JLP and PNP seem to have sold out to dons, garrisons and other lawless entities, the church should support the formation of a new party to rescue the nation. This is just the tip of the iceberg of the ills ailing Jamaica and the responsibility of the church to bring healing. The time has long passed for Jamaica’s churches to help save the nation. In times like these, Jamaica more than ever needs the church to be the church.

INMerv@hotmail.com