{"id":4515,"date":"2025-03-31T08:40:32","date_gmt":"2025-03-31T12:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=4515"},"modified":"2025-03-31T08:40:32","modified_gmt":"2025-03-31T12:40:32","slug":"hope-in-the-midst-of-failure-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2025\/03\/31\/hope-in-the-midst-of-failure-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Hope in the Midst of Failure"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0<\/em>click here<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n


Each day this Lent we\u2019re looking at major \u201cturning points\u201d in Christian history \u2013 moments or seasons in which the story of God\u2019s people took an important and often unexpected turn. \u00a0<\/em>

The gruff cynic Henry Ford once growled, \u201cHistory is bunk.\u201d

Now that Henry Ford himself is history, we can dare to take a more enlightened view of things.

History matters. Those who have died still speak. They are not excluded from our conversations just because they\u2019re gone. The study of history grows our humility, especially when we delve into chapters that have much to teach us about what it means to trust God in our broken world.

In the end, studying the past reveals God\u2019s faithfulness \u2013 then and now.

This is not to say that the study of history is without controversy. Last week President Trump signed an executive order that the Smithsonian Institution and other museums receiving federal funds must present only positive stories about America. Museums must become \u201csymbols of inspiration and American greatness.\u201d

Make no mistake: America is an extraordinary country. But the American story, like all stories of families, nations, religions, and ideologies, is marked by setbacks, failures, and tragic mistakes. Refusing to tell those parts of the story does not make them go away.

Having reached the midpoint of our Lenten series, let\u2019s pause and acknowledge that you don\u2019t have to look very hard to find the shadowy parts of the Christian story.

As historian Mark Noll puts it, \u201cGod sustains the church despite the church\u2019s own frequent efforts to betray its Savior and its own high calling\u2026 Despite a dazzling array of God-honoring triumphs, and despite a wide and deep record of godliness among believers of high estate and low, the sad fact is that the church\u2019s history is often a sordid, disgusting tale.\u201d

He continues, \u201cThe golden ages of the past usually turn out to be tarnished if they are examined closely enough. Crowding around the heroes of the faith are a lot of villains, and some of them look an awful lot like the heroes.\u201d

Catholic popes have long been a favorite target of religious skeptics. Entire websites are devoted to the foibles and frailties of the 266 men who have been identified as Christ\u2019s unique representative on earth.

Pope Stephen VI, for example, exhumed the corpse of his predecessor Pope Formosus in 896, for the curious purpose of putting him on trial. No one was surprised that Formosus, dressed in his formal papal vestments, never spoke a word in his own defense. He was found guilty of crimes against Christendom.

The Renaissance-era Pope Alexander VI, who ascended to Peter\u2019s chair in 1492, is the poster boy for moral degeneracy in the Vatican. A member of the murderous Borgia family, his scandals included nepotism, bribery, fathering illegitimate children, and incest \u2013 not to mention allegedly ordering \u201chits\u201d on political rivals. \u00a0

The brightest lights of the Protestant Reformation cannot escape such scrutiny.

Michael Servetus, the brilliant Spanish physician and theologian, dared to disagree with Christian orthodoxy concerning the doctrine of the Trinity. In 1553, he fled to John Calvin\u2019s Geneva, hoping to find sanctuary. Instead, Calvin condemned him as a heretic and orchestrated his burning at the stake.

In his cantankerous later years, Martin Luther wrote an exceedingly regrettable tract called Against the Jews and Their Lies<\/em>.

He declared, \u201cWhat then shall we Christians do with this damned, rejected race of Jews? Since they live among us and we know about their lying and blasphemy and cursing, we cannot tolerate them… First, their synagogues should be set on fire… Secondly, their homes should likewise be broken down and set on fire…Thirdly, they should be deprived of their prayer books and Talmuds… Fourthly, their rabbis should be forbidden under threat of death to teach any more\u2026 To sum up, dear princes and nobles who have Jews in your domains, if this advice of mine does not suit you, then find a better one so that you may all be free of this insufferable devilish burden \u2013 the Jews.\u201d<\/em>

Adolph Hitler made much of those words in justifying his anti-Semitism to the German Lutheran Church of the 20th<\/sup> century. At least one of Luther\u2019s biographers has wished aloud that Luther had died before he ever got around to writing that tract.

For hundreds of years, the Church participated in Europe\u2019s maniacal pursuit of people (mostly women) who were suspected of witchcraft. The Spanish Inquisition of the 15th<\/sup> and 16th<\/sup> centuries sometimes excessively pursued, in brutal fashion, its primary task of \u201cinquiring\u201d about the faith of suspected heretics and Jews.

Jesus said, during his final hours, \u201cBy this will everyone know that you are my disciples, if you love one another\u201d (John 13:35).

But public perception is more in line with Bart Simpson\u2019s encounter with his next-door neighbors, the Flanders kids. \u201cHey, where have you guys been?\u201d Bart asks. \u201cWe\u2019ve been to church camp,\u201d they answer, \u201cto learn how to be more judgmental.\u201d\u00a0

Sadly, history is dominated by stories of Christians who can\u2019t (or won\u2019t) get along with other Christians.

Although Paul described the Jesus-following reality as one in which \u201cthere is no longer Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female\u201d (Galatians 3:26-28), church leaders have often made decisions that reinforced those distinctions instead of obliterating them.

Although Jesus declared, \u201cMy kingdom is not of this world,\u201d people ministering in his name have frequently jumped at the chance to control money, power, and military arsenals \u2013 only to make decisions that seriously compromised the gospel.

The watching world has a right to ask, \u201cIf God is really God, how are we to understand the church\u2019s checkered past?\u201d \u00a0\u00a0

Jesus provides insight in the parable of the wheat and the weeds (Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43).

A\u00a0Palestinian farmer plants seeds in his field.\u00a0He aims to grow a crop of wheat.\u00a0But when the tiny plants appear above the soil, it’s obvious something else is also growing there.\u00a0He discovers a profusion of wheat and weeds growing side by side.\u00a0But\u00a0nobody can tell them apart.\u00a0\u00a0

The servants ask if they should try to go and separate the good from the bad. No, says the farmer, we\u2019ll do the sorting at harvest time.

A day is coming, Jesus says, when God will do the harvesting. God will right every wrong. The distinction between history\u2019s \u201cwheat\u201d and \u201cweeds\u201d will finally become clear to everyone.

Until then, we recognize that God\u2019s faithfulness is not erased by our failures. The Spirit is continually remaking and reforming the church \u2013 and no other faith has generated anything that comes close to the blessings bestowed on this world when God\u2019s people choose to trust him.

Like a tide that raises every boat in the harbor, the spread of Christianity has raised a global awareness (and expectation) of freedom, dignity, and the inherent worth of individuals.

According to Jesus, whose life is worth preserving? Everyone\u2019s life is of infinite value<\/em>. And who can make a difference in the world? Anybody, with God\u2019s help, can change the course of history.<\/em>

Novelist and social critic Dorothy Sayers once identified what she called God\u2019s three greatest miracles.

The first is the Incarnation \u2013 the fact that God became a human being. The second is the resurrection \u2013 God\u2019s triumph over death. The third is the church \u2013 the ludicrous notion that God decided to entrust his reputation and the success of his global mission to faulty, faithless people like us.

Our track record may be spotty.

But God is seriously committed to setting things right. \u00a0

And Jesus has promised the best gift of all: \u201cI am with you always, even to the end of the age.\u201d
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To listen to today’s reflection as a podcast,\u00a0click here Each day this Lent we\u2019re looking at major \u201cturning points\u201d in Christian history \u2013 moments or seasons in which the story of God\u2019s people took an important and often unexpected turn. \u00a0 The gruff cynic Henry Ford once growled, \u201cHistory is bunk.\u201d Now that Henry Ford himself is history, we can… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4516,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[893,884,891,831],"class_list":["post-4515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-catholic-popes","tag-church-history","tag-john-calvin","tag-martin-luther"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4515","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4515"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4515\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4517,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4515\/revisions\/4517"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4515"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4515"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4515"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}