25 Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, 26 that He might sanctify and cleanse her with the washing of water by the word, 27 that He might present her to Himself a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and without blemish. 28 So husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies; he who loves his wife loves himself. 29 For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as the Lord does the church. 30 For we are members of His body, of His flesh and of His bones. 31 'For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.' 32 This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church. 33 Nevertheless let each one of you in particular so love his own wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband."
Dear Jesus,
I am praying for Your Church, Your Bride, today. You love her. You love us. Thank You for Your incredible vision, hope, and plan for Your Church. Thank You for investing in us as people, local congregations, denominations, and as an entire body of believers--Your Bride.
My longing is that You are pleased with the Bride who walks down the aisle to You. I want You to adore her, admire her, and be thrilled with her.
My concern is that You feel none of these emotions toward us. You love us, but... I fear that we are a chronic disappointment to You. Wayward, compromising, and sinful, we "expect to walk down the aisle in a dress as filthy as the one in which You found us in the gutters of life" (John Oswalt). That would be tragic. Such a presumptive attitude by Your Bride would presume on Your grace, mercy, and love with a careless disregard of Your sinless life, sacrificial death, atoning sacrifice, and resurrection from the dead.
Sometimes, we get stuck in our traditions. "The Church always runs the danger of condemning a new way of doing things just because it is new. In one sense there is hardly any institution in the world which resents change so much as the Church does. The Church has often rejected a great teacher, and has often refused some great adventure silly because it wished to be left alone, and suspected all things new" (William Barclay in The Gospel of John, vol. 1, 1955, p. 59).
Sometimes, we get stuck in our political power-mongering, treating our local or denominational manifestation of Your Body as if it were own personal kingdom. We pad our pockets with wealth. We fill our wills with power. We posture ourselves with pontificating control. We build institutions, but we don't prepare a Bride for You.
Sometimes, we celebrate our new ideas with gusto, abusing other believers who disagree. We label, disregard, and disrespect them, casting them aside as obstacles to "progress." Then we capture our innovations with clever titles, prooftexts, and popular speakers who serve as spokespersons for the spread of our initiative. The fad takes off in a frenzy, based upon some flimsy wresting of scripture morphed into a shoddy theology of praxis. We make the proponents wealthy, and browbeat the objectors. Too often, the Church embraces the new with a legalistic dogmatism and then clings to the innovation far too long, because she has painted herself into a proverbial corner where departure from the practice will be construed as spiritual compromise.
Oh, the pride and godlessness of our ways! Call Your Church, Your Bride, to repent. Convict us of our self-serving narcissism. Call us to fall in love with You. You require a holy Bride, call her to holiness, sanctify her, and lovingly invite her to intimacy of communion with You. Unclog our deaf and "uncircumcised ears" (Acts 7:51). Court us. Nurture our affection until we fall in love with You again.
I love You, Jesus. I want to be a part of Your holy Bride. I want to be part of a Bride, Your Church, that pleases You. I want to see the "Wow" on Your face when we walk down the aisle. Stir desire within Your Church.
In the Name of the Bridegroom,
Amen.
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