PASTOR’S PERSPECTIVE: The Church-A blood-washed hippopotamus?
By: Ron Woodrum
One of my favorite professors was Earl Radmacher. Dr. Radmacher was the President of Western Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary in Portland, Oregon. I was introduced to him through my Greek professor/ Mentor Dr. John A. Burns. Dr. Radmacher, as his doctoral dissertation, wrote the best book ever written, in my opinion, on the Biblical doctrine of the Church. It is called The Nature of the Church. One of my most prized books in my library is my personally signed copy given to me by Dr. Radmacher. In his book Dr. Radmacher lists several metaphors used in the New Testament for the Church. He listed how the New Testament calls the Church a Body; a Building; Branches; and a Bride. In his book he elaborates those images in a very dynamic and comprehensive manner. One of my favorite symbols of the Church, outside the New Testament is by Dr. Howard Hendricks. He said that the Church is like a group of porcupines. On a cold winter night they have to huddle together to keep warm. But because they are covered with quills they prick and injure each other. He said, “How like the Church-We need each other, but when we get close we needle each other!” (I believe that the Swedish Theologian/ Philosopher Soren Kirkegaard was the first to use this metaphor). Very enlightening image! But I think I discovered the most unusual image used of the Church, outside the New Testament imagery. It comes from one of my favorite poets-British essayist, publisher, playwright, literary and social critic, and one of the twentieth century’s major poets-Thomas Stearns Eliot-i.e. T.S. Eliot (1888-1965). In a poem written in 1920, Eliot likened the Church to, of all things, The Hippopotamus! Yet his poem has some real points to make about the weaknesses and ugliness of the Church, yet shows how, through the redemption and power of God, she can and will rise to heavenly heights! Here is the poem:
THE BROAD-BACKED hippopotamus
Rests on his belly in the mud;
Although he seems firm to us
He is merely flesh and blood.
Flesh and blood is weak and frail,
Susceptible to nervous shock;
While the true Church will never fail
For it’s based upon a rock.
The hippo’s feeble steps may err
In compassing material’s ends,
While the True Church need never stir
To gather in its dividends.
The ‘potamus can never reach
The mango on the mango-tree
But fruits of pomegranate and peach
Refresh the Church from over sea.
At mating time the hippo’s voice
Betrays inflexions hoarse and odd,
But every week we hear rejoice
The Church, at being one with God.
The hippopotamus’s day
Is passed in sleep; at night he hunts;
God works in a mysterious way-
The Church can seep and feed at once.
I saw the ‘potamus take wing
Ascending from the damp savannas,
And quiring Angels round him sing
The praise of God, in loud hosannas.
Blood of the Lamb shall wash him clean
And him shall heavenly arms enfold,
Among the saints he shall be seen
Performing on a harp of Gold.
He shall be washed as white as snow,
By all the martyr’d virgins kist,
While the True Church remains below
Wrapped in the old missmal mist.
There is much debate about what Eliot was trying to say in this sarcastic poem. Only he knows for sure. But the contrast appears to be between the Professed Church that gives a powerful and infallible image, and the genuine Church that is often flesh and blood; weak and failing; sometimes lazy and ugly; but in the end, due to the blood-bought price paid for her this hippopotamus, rises to great heights due to God’s mysterious salvation and power.
C.S. Lewis, after his conversion had a low view of the Church too. He soon saw how much he needed the Church, and how much God has chosen to use the Church, with all her imperfections to accomplish His work. He wrote in his book God in the Dock:
“When I first became a Christian fourteen years ago, I thought I could do it on my own, retiring to my room…and reading theology and I would not go to Church…I disliked very much their hymns, which I considered to be fifth-rate music. But as I went on I saw the great merit of it. I came up against different people, with guite different outlooks, different education, and gradually my conceit began peeling off. I realized that the hyms, (which really were sixth-rate music!), were nevertheless being sung with devotion and benefit by an old saint in elastic-side boots, in the opposite pew, and then you realize you aren’t fit to clean those boots! It gets you out of your solitary conceit!” Lewis went on to become a great apologist and defender of the Church, and how God could use her with all her imperfections!
Philip Yancey, in his book, The Church; Why Bother?, came to the same conclusion. He wrote, “As I look around on Sunday morning at the people populating the pews, I see the risk that God has assumed. For whatever reason, God now reveals Himself in the world, not in a pillar of smoke and fire, not even through the physical body of His Son in Galilee, but through the mongruel collection that comprises my local Church and every other such gathering in God’s name”. (pg. 68). But that is who He chose to use to reach the world. Yancey, in his book, emphasizes that we will never succeed in the power of the flesh. The arm of flesh will fail us. But God, in His grace and power, and the fullness of His Spirit, can reveal his Glory through the Church. That is the message of the Book of Ephesians. The Church, through the Riches of His Grace, is seated in the Heavenlies with Him, while living out His life-giving power on earth, in the enemy’s territory. Paul takes the Greek lexicon and empties out all the Greek words for power as He describes how He transforms His Church into the Church victorious. Yancey goes on to say how we can succeed in our ministry. He writes, “Our best efforts at changing society will fall short unless the Church can teach the world how to love…the Church is. above all, a place to receive grace; it brings forgiven people together with the aim of equipping us to disperse grace to others…The Church is…a counter-cultural community-in the world, but not of it-that shows others how to live in the most fulfilled way and meaningful life on earth…rejecting the false gods of independence, success, and pleasure, and replacing them with the Love of God and Neighbor. Faith is not a private matter or something we practice once a week at Church. Rather, it should have a contagious effect on the broader world. Jesus, in describing His Church, and their work in the Kingdom, used images of yeast permeating the whole loaf; a pinch of salt preserving a slab of meat; the smallest seed in the garden growing into a great tree, which in the end can welcome all the birds of the air to come and rest and nest in its branches!” So what Lewis and Yancey, and the New Testament is telling us is-even if the Church is a flesh and blood ugly and awkward hippopotamus-by the power of God she can still bring God great glory and rise to heights that in the flesh is impossible. Hippopotamus or nots go be the Church! You can make a heavy and heavenly impact on this big bad world!