The Wolverine Church

You find yourself having some interesting conversations when you have two young sons who enjoy superheroes and comics. The other day the boys were asking me some rather pointed questions about one of their favorite superheroes, Wolverine. The funny thing is they were asking me questions as if Wolverine and I were old friends. I guess they thought I had a deeper understanding than they did about the mutant abilities of one of Marvel Comics more popular heroes. Here is the Reader's Digest version of his superpowers for those that aren't familiar with Wolverine or his abilities. Wolverine heals ridiculously fast, meaning he's nearly indestructible. He also has a fictitious but indestructible metal coating his skeleton. He also has three razor sharp blades that extend from his hands. Needless to say, he is pretty impressive when it comes to superheroes.

Since I'm always on the lookout for sermon illustrations and ideas for blog posts, I couldn't help but notice the correlation between Wolverine and how the church is supposed to be. Now I know in a perfect world with perfect people we would have a perfect church. Unfortunately we live in a sinful world full of imperfect people which results in a flawed church. But just because we live in a broken world doesn't mean we can't strive towards being a part of a great church that stands out from the world. To do so I think the church (the people not the building) needs to imitate the abilities of Wolverine and here's how...

Heal Quickly.
The church is full of sinful people. None of us are immune to sin and we'll all continue to sin until this life is over. The reality of our sinfulness plays itself out in the church. At times we can all be selfish, prideful, controlling, slanderous, or downright mean. When that happens people are hurt. The best way for Christians in the church to handle this type of situation is to expedite the healing process. That means don't go to everyone and their brother complaining and gossiping about what someone did to hurt you. Take it directly to the person and address the issue with them as quickly as you can. What you'll find is that Satan will use that difficult situation to cause more problems if you give it time hoping it will go away. Deal with it quickly, speak honestly, and work towards a resolution (Ephesians 4:26-27).

Have a Strong Backbone.
One of the more challenging aspects of dealing with people, inside and outside of the church, is speaking up for what is right. Sometimes that means an injustice has been done and we need to speak out against it. Usually we don't have trouble speaking up in that way. But when we hear people gossiping and slandering others, we need to be just as quick to speak up. What I've witnessed over the years, and I've seen myself do it too, is that someone makes a comment and you know you should say something to defend the person or stop the gossip, but instead you go silent. We've all been there, but that doesn't make it right. What we as a church need to do is to be bold in calling a sin a sin and standing up for what we know is right. Even if we have to stand out from the crowd to do so.

Use Your Weapon Wisely.
Some in the church have no problem cutting others down and then finding some obscure and out-of-context bible verse to support their mistreatment of others. Regardless of what they did to hurt you, two wrongs don't make a right. Two wrongs simply leave more people hurting and a bigger problem for all involved. The greatest weapon for dealing with people who have hurt us is not a sharp tongue, foul language, or gossip. The greatest weapon is the Bible. The Bible teaches us how we are to relate to God and to others. We are to treat others like we want to be treated (Luke 6:31). If I've hurt someone I would want to know about it so I could seek their forgiveness and make things right. If they respond with hatred and anger, chances are I'll never see the error of my ways. But if they were to respond to me with forgiveness because God had forgiven them (Ephesians 4:32), then I would be moved to seek restoration of the relationship. If we don't use our greatest weapon, the Bible, to help protect our church and the relationships we've built in it, then we haven't done our job as Christians.

It might be a bit much for some to compare the superpowers of a superhero to how the church can take a stand to standout in this world. But the truth of the matter remains the same, the church needs to learn to heal quickly, stand up for what is right, and put the truths of the Bible into practice. When the church does so, it will definitely become a church with awesome superpowers.


If you enjoyed today's post be sure to Share it on Facebook and Twitter so others can be encouraged too!