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The Hospice Mindset

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The church is not a place for the righteous, it is a hospital for sinners.

So goes the popular saying that has taken on almost cliche-like proportions in many of our churches. The idea is that anyone who expects church members to live differently than those who are not members.

Is the Statement Helpful?

The statement is a helpful thing to keep in mind if it reminds us of our own hypocracy or even lack of understanding that the Christian life is one of growth and that we cannot expect new people to be as far along as some of our more seasoned members. It is helpful when it reminds us of these things.

However, too often the saying promotes a situation where there is no growth. It can hide the fact that often it is not the new members who are still falling to the sin that so easily besets them, but the old ones. Too often, it promotes the illogical and unchristian idea that we should not expect Christians to live any differently than those on the outside. Too often the saying promotes a mindset that is quick to call anyone a hypocrite who is calling the church to live better.

Do They Mean Hospice?

In short, too often the saying is used incorrectly. When the saying is used to support Christians who do not grow, then the speaker should say that “the church is not a hospital but a hospice.

A hospice is a place where the sick go to be comforted before dying. The sick go to have their pains masked by drugs while they wait for that same illness to overtake and kill them. Too often, we want to make the church a place where the sick can be confortable while they continue the dying process. A place where they will not be confronted by the realization that healing is possible in Jesus Christ. A place where those who do not wish to be bothered by any of the ethical implications of the gospel can go to have a good shout and go home to live unchanged lives.

Too often we want the church to be a hospice where we do not allow Jesus to take from us our most cherished sins. Too often we want the church to be a hospice where the same sin that elicited our need for Jesus ultimtaely kills us!

Reclaiming the Truth in the Statement

But the saying is right, the church is not a hospice, no, it is a hospital. It is a place where Jesus shows up. It is a place where sick folks are healed. Yes, people are broken in need of great help, but Jesus does something. Yes the church is a hospital.

To not expect that the sinner will get better is not a hospital mindset it is a hospice mindset. To not expect that Jesus is able to help me to overcome all of my weakness is a hospice mindset not a hospital mindset. Certainly the church is a place where the sick congregate, but are the sick expected to get better after a confrontation with the King of the Universe, or are the sick simply entertained while the ailment that brought them there ultimately kills them?

That is the question. Is it truly a hospital where the sick get well or a hospice where the sick are comforted and entertained before they die in their sins?

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The Sabbath and the Way-Maker

roadE. J. Waggoner, in Gospel in Creation writes:

The Sabbath is for the purpose of keeping in mind the creative power of God, which is His distinguishing characteristic. But creative power is the power of the gospel, so that that which celebrates creation also celebrates redemption.

The Sabbath is about celebrating creation and the creative power of God. The Sabbath is the time that we are called to remember what God can do. The Sabbath is about God’s ability to create something out of nothing.

Raw Materials for Creation

In Hebrews 11:3 we are told: “Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.”

The Sabbath is our faith building device to help us understand that everything that is seen is made of things that we cannot necessarily see or even understand. When someone says that God is a “waymaker,” that one is simply talking about God’s ability to create a way out of a way that does not appear to be open.

Deliverance from Sin in the Sabbath

The Sabbath reminds us that our deliverance from sin and holy living is not based in what we can see. We may have fallen to that same sin continuously, but the Sabbath reminds us that God is a creator, and creative power doesn’t require us to see what God is going to do.

When someone says that “God is able”, that one is simply stating that God’s creative power is not constrained by circumstances that “do appear,” but by God’s ability to create something out of nothing. And every Sabbath we come together to celebrate that power.

In the last days, God will have a people who will “worship him who made.” (Revelation 14:7). The day designed to remember this creative power is the Sabbath. Let us believe and live as if we are “Sabbath-keepers” who always seek to remember the Creative Power of God.

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The Cheap Knock Off of True Faith

We have often heard it said that the Christian life will not necessarily be a smooth one in this life. We could have the same problems and issues others have. A recession can take our job away just like every one else. Our parents die while we are in middle age, like every one else. Unexpected natural disasters and doctor’s diagnoses also cloud our horizon. We know of these things intellectually and theologically.

Suspending Our Judgment

shopping300However, when we go to church, some of us suspend judgment and start believing anything that is spouted by the preacher. We stat believing that if we plant our seed (pay money in the plate) we will not have the same issues as everyone else. We start believing that God must hook us up with financial blessings that look a lot like American Middle Class values. We start believing that we know that God’s will for us is to be the Joneses that elicits envious looks from our neighbors.

There is a Christianity that costs something. Larnell Harris sang the song a while back entitled “When Praise Demands a Sacrifice.” In it he looks at the story of Abraham. Abraham was called to give up all on the alter. Some of us think that preaching about American materialism is that of which “relevant” preaching consists. Some of us are too busy following the preaching about cars, houses, and promotions that we miss the essential idea that true Christianity brings sacrifice and persecution. Christianity has become too comfortable in this society. We see Christianity not as an alternative to American Socieity’s excesses and materialism, but as an inside help to gain all that any citizen would desire.

Yes God Hooks Us Up

Yes God Hooks us up, no doubt. But Satan, the god of this world, is a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. 1 Peter 5:8. Yes God places limits on what Satan can do, but Satan is busy attempting to overtake the woman because he knows he has little time. Revelation 12:12. My Sister and Brother preachers, it is time to stop preaching God as if God is simply the inside track to material blessings. It is time to move towards a more mature and deeper faith that can say with the Hebrew boys, “God is able, but if God doesn’t, I still will not bow.” Daniel 3:17.

We need a But if Not faith if we are going to make it through the dark days ahead. We need a “but if Not” faith if we are going to live the life God would have us to live. We need a “but if not” faith if we will live through the time of trouble such as never was. Daniel 12:1. In fact the hook up is not that you are guaranteed a new car or a new house. The hook up is that God is with you even in the valley of the Shadow of death. The hook up is not that if you lose your job a better paying one is around the corner. The hook up is that with every temptation God provides a way of escape. The hook up is not that you are guaranteed a cure for the cancer. The hook up is that even if you have to die, Jesus has already defeated death. I think that the true hook up is worth more than the materialistic cheap knock off.