I don’t know much about the army. As a kid, I liked to play guns and I had a decent collection of GI Joes, but that’s really about as far as my fantasies of army-life went. I didn’t have any relatives who served in the armed forces. I didn’t have any friends who enlisted. I did live near an air force base that has since been converted into a naval reserve base, but that single distant association hardly acquainted me with the rigors of military life.

All that to say, I don’t know much about the army.

In spite of that, I found myself contemplating army life recently. I was talking with a friend about “the church” (not my church—the church universal). We were gnawing on the idea of discipleship and genuine commitment and I had what you might call an epiphany. (You’d call it that if you agree with it. If you don’t, I don’t really want to know what you’ll call it.)

Imagine that, for whatever reason, our government decided to just let everyone in the army go. Mass lay-off. In place of what has been the US army, the government plans to create a new army, an army of individuals, an army of choice. The rules for the new army will be considerably different from the rules of the old army:

For instance, anyone can enlist in the new army. Anyone. Your physical, mental, emotional or spiritual health means nothing at all. Come one, come all. You don’t have to be evaluated in any way. Just sign your name and you’re in.

Once you’re in, what you do is up to you. Some people choose to go to boot camp to learn basic skills and get in shape, but hey, maybe that’s not for you. If that’s the case, you don’t have to go to boot camp. You just do whatever feels right to you.

You can join up with whatever unit or special forces detail you want to, regardless of past training, seniority or qualifications. You can come and go as you please, logging long hours of training and relationship building for a while and then just disappearing for months at a time. Rest assured, your space will be right here waiting for you when you get back.

There’s no chain of command in the new army. No sir, you don’t have to salute anyone or respect anyone or do what anyone tells you to do. We don’t want you to feel oppressed or controlled. If an officer tells you to do something, do it…or don’t. Your call. And don’t worry about disciplinary action for insubordination—discipline, shmiscipline. You won’t get into any trouble here.

No one has to train for anything or commit to anything or submit to anyone. If you find that this army isn’t meeting your armed forces needs, you can just take off and join the new navy or the new marines or the new air force. Heck, you can just shuffle from one to another every few years if you like and sometimes not associate with any at all. This is the new, user-friendly army.

Our slogan isn’t “We want You.” Our slogan is “Whatever You Want”, and we mean it.

Can you imagine what such any army would be like? If there were an invasion or a war, how much faith would you put into an army like that? No one is trained, no one is disciplined, no one is grounded in relationship as a result of fighting side-by-side in prior conflicts.

There’s no authority, no chain of command. It doesn’t matter who really knows what they’re doing as a result of study and practice—no one respects anyone else. Such an army would quickly turn on itself. People who don’t even know how to use them would bully other people with machine guns and bazookas. Chaos would rule. It would be the end of us all.

Well, that handy little picture is all-too-often the church, my friend. We are undisciplined, we refuse to submit to authority, we are largely untrained, we come and go as we please and when any kind of fighting breaks out it’s usually within the ranks because we turn on each other with surprising ease.

It frightens and humbles me to consider the state of things.

An army so poorly equipped and so obviously disjointed wouldn’t stand a chance. What kind of chance does the church have? How will we pull through? What will rally us and reunite true disciples into a union that threatens the gates of hell? What will keep us from killing each other?

Trite though it may sound, the answer is unquestionably Jesus. Jesus, who submitted Himself first to the Father and then to death. Jesus, who was thoroughly disciplined, often removing Himself from the crowds and His close friends to find a quiet place to pray. Jesus, who never gave up, never gave in, never failed to apply Himself to the challenge of living fully for God. Jesus, who never held back anything from God when sacrifice was required.

The answer for the church—and for the world—can be found only in Jesus. And the church will rise again as the army of the living God when she looks to Him.

But that’s not where we are now, I’m afraid, and I won’t sugar coat the facts for you. Right now I spend most days just trying not to get shot—by the guy next to me. The words “Christian” and “disciple” are used with such routine carelessness that they mean nothing. In fact, the very idea of a follower of Christ who is as devote as, say, a stanch Muslim or Buddhist is almost laughable.

We have a long way to go.

And, in spite of the part of me that wants to clean up all the clutter and pretend everything’s as it should be, I’m going to end this post right here, in the mess. We do have a long way to go.

What should the church look like? Obviously my little metaphor isn’t perfect. There are some real flaws with it. What is an appropriate metaphor of who the church should be? What would you change tomorrow if you could? How do you navigate the mess?

posted by adam on 10.13.2006 at 6:52 am