Having grown up watching British comedies with my parents, we always enjoyed the antics of Hyacinth Bucket (which she insisted was pronounced Bouquet) as she tried to aspire to a higher social class than she was really in. Each week her attempts to seem high brow would go terribly awry, often at the hands of her family who were quite common. Her efforts to put on a good act and her distress as the wheels came off made the show very funny and it was very popular.

Often times our approach to church can look very similar to this. Church is where we are supposed to bring our best, look our best, be our best. Such pressure is tough to legitimately maintain. It would be nice if we were truly always at our best, but life rarely allows us to consistently operate in “best” mode. We have setbacks, interpersonal struggles, sin that so easily entangles us, and just general weakness. Yet when its time for church we put on our Sunday best: nice clothes, nice smile, spiritual answers, and praise the Lord together. Like Hyacinth, this can result in some unintended comedic situations (that would be funny if they weren’t so tragic). We fight with spouse or kids before we leave, even on the way with a stressful car ride, but then emerge from the car as a well adjusted spiritually thankful family. The tension will wait for us in the car for the ride home. We also may act out worship and devotion when we really don’t feel particularly close to God and may be spiritually dry or struggling. For the hour or two of church, we are able to appear to be what we want to be or at least think we’re supposed to be.

For too long we’ve allowed and encouraged this kind of culture in our churches. The cost, the disapproval, the whispers, or even judgement of not being “ok” has convinced us that we need to make our best effort to “keep up appearances.” I call this a culture of concealment when what we need is a culture of confession.

Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. The effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much.

(James 5:16)

We are called to have a culture of confession, not concealment. We need to realize that it is our natural state to struggle, to be weak, to be in the midst of battle against our flesh and worst impulses. If we would be honest with one another and no feel the need to keep up a good appearance, perhaps we would all grow more and also find more people in the world who were willing to find solutions with us in Christ as well. We need to worry less about if we all measure up and realize that all have sinned and fall short, and the good that we would do we do not do. We are all in daily need of the grace and mercy of God and we experience that grace and mercy the most when we give it to each other as we confess our sins and failings to each other.

If you are part of a church, can you help transform the culture into one that is less about keeping up appearances and more about letting Christ appear in the midst of our weakness? Can you resolve to quit the performance and pressure of trying to live up to something you haven’t achieved and instead be a community that cares for sinners. I’m thankful that we are working on being that kind of community at Bean’s Corner. This imperfect struggling man has found grace and mercy from Christ and His Body, the Church.