The Shepherd of Hermas: A Lesson for the Modern Church Critic

One of the most iconic songs of the 80's was Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror." The song was all about if you want to change the world, what you really need to do is change yourself because you are a part of the world that needs to be changed. The more people who focus on themselves, the more the world will change. It's a ground-up type of philosophy that I find to be very much a Christian idea. 

There is an early Christian book that teaches a similar sentiment. The Shepherd of Hermas, although not canonical, was nonetheless considered by early Christians to be one of the most important books for believers to read. It is the most widely attested book besides a couple of the Gospels and even appears as the final book in Codex Sinaiticus, which is one of the most well-known and reliable codices from which many modern translations adopt their readings.

The book has many important things to say but one of the most important in my mind is the image of the church that appears to Hermas as an old, worn out woman who is viewed as ugly because of the sins and shortcomings of her children. The woman appears to Hermas and tells him that he and his household need to repent. As he continues to repent and grow in the faith, the woman reappears to him, but each time that she does, she gets younger and more beautiful, finally appearing to him as an amazingly beautiful bride adorned in all of her glory. 

It is interesting that this scene begins with Hermas viewing her as old and ugly. Yet, the rebuke is not for her to make herself more beautiful but rather for Hermas to repent and grow out of his immaturity. What this essentially presents to us is that when we are in our most sinful and immature state, we see the church as ugly. By "ugly" I mean that we don't like it. It's not attracting us. It holds no influence over us and instead we can do nothing but critique how it lacks beauty.

When we grow in Christ, we begin to see that our disdain for the body of believers of which we are a part becomes a vision of Christ's glory. It is a green oasis flowing with water in the midst of an ugly wasteland. 

In other words, the Body of Christ isn't ugly. It never was. It is cleansed by the blood of Christ and even its blemishes will soon be wiped away. Instead, we are the ugly ones and we project the frustrations of our own ugliness, the disorder of our own lives and households, onto the church and cannot see the beauty of Christ that it reflects.

Think on this, Disillusioned Christian, the world thinks the church is ugly too. When your view and the world's view of the Body of Christ is in agreement, that speaks more to where you are than where the church is.

Hypercritical people who have a need to fix every jot and tittle in what is almost surely a case of obsessive compulsive disorder created by the lack of complete control in their own lives and households don't need to be catered to but rather told that the imperfections they see are due to their own vision, not what exists in reality. Their high and lofty expectations for what the church should look like need to be applied to themselves and their own households, or to put it in the words of Christ, they need to "take the log out" of their own eyes and then they will see clearly to take the speck out of their brothers' eyes.

Of course, the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence, so these people think that if they only were like someone else's church, if they only lived in some other area, if they only had some other spouse, if they only had some other family, etc., the world would turn right as rain. But what they fail to realize is that the ugliness is within. God Himself cleansed the world with a flood, and yet, sin blossomed anew. And why wouldn't it? Sin first came about in paradise. That's because one's environment does not dictate whether one will choose ugliness. It only exposes whether one has the desire to do so. 

Because of that very Augustinian (i.e., non-heretical Pelagian) idea, the imperfect church is beautiful. It is beautiful because in its imperfections it exposes our imperfections. It shows our lack of patience, blindness to the good around us, discontent and frustration with our lack of being gods who have complete control, etc. Its imperfections bring out that we are spoiled, ungrateful children who look to find reasons to complain and find fault rather than reasons to be thankful and praise God. It exposes where we have failed to realize that the gospel has given us hope and in hope a positive outlook to see beauty in God's people even when they are ugly to fleshly eyes. 

The imperfections of the church are there for our sanctification and woe to the man who finds a church that is perfect in his eyes, for that would surely be a judgment of God over his life. He will find himself in a counterfeit church, a cult, if in fact it is everything he wants and will now be kept from any exposure of his sinful disposition in the world.

Now, of course, if there is a church body in absolute unrepentant sin, it is ugly; but that is because there is a serious question as to whether it is actually the body of Christ at that time. Christ Himself has that local body under judgment for its compromise and will take away its lampstand from His temple if it does not repent. 

But if you go to a church that is the Body of Christ and all you can see is its imperfections, then you are not looking at the church as it truly is but in a mirror that likely reflects the disorder in your own character, household, and mind. Our consumeristic mentality feeds into our naturally judgmental minds. We are the ones who have the standards that need to be met if this church is a "good one" or not. "No one said hi to me." "I don't like the way they do communion." "I don't like the way the preacher said that." "This person offended me." "I don't like their music." "They're disrespectful in their casual dress." "They're too stuffy in their formal clothes." "I don't like where they meet." "I don't like when they meet." "They're too intrusive into our lives." "They're not involved enough in our lives." "They're too liturgical." "They're not liturgical enough." The thoughts of fault-finders are a radio turned up loudly to drown out the sins they themselves are committing against the church, fellow believers, their spouses, their children, etc. 

The solution is not to try and clean out every single particle of dust in every nook and cranny within the Body of Christ, but rather to do as the lady of Hermas commands, i.e., repent and ask forgiveness for yourself and for your household, i.e., "take a look at yourself and make a change." Only then will the church's beauty be restored to your sight.