Corporate change takes time. Whether we’re thinking of the serious challenges facing our whole constituency or the more localised struggles of the church of which we are part, we all have to wrestle with the fact that community progress towards Christlikeness comes in the form of gradually growing fruit.
If we’re honest, many of us don’t like that fact. Often, we’d quite like it if God could just change things now. We may never say it, but we can act as if progressive sanctification isn’t one of God’s better ideas.
Hard time
Frequently, there are good reasons for wanting some pace. Every moment abuse persists, more people get hurt. Every month where sin remains unconfessed, the legacy of the Fall retains a grip on people’s hearts. And, of course, at times it is right to act quickly and decisively – to report, protect, and bring darkness into the light. But after an initial swift step, there is still a long journey ahead. The Christian life is always a marathon, not a sprint.
Sometimes, however, the motivation for speed is significantly less wise. There are moments when we want problems resolved so we don’t need to feel uncomfortable, so our anxiety and fears can be allayed. Sometimes we want pace because we’d rather be doing something – anything – other than dealing with the outworkings of sin. Like many a reader of the book of Job, we want to jump swiftly from the pain at the start to the hope at the end. The middle chapters, with circular arguments and confused thinking, feel like a waste of time. But God put them in his word. A reminder that there is often significant distance between the beginning and the end of a story of human pain.
Does that mean we should just embrace a slow pace of change, whatever the motivation? Not at all. We don’t take time because it’s a healer – it’s not, in and of itself. We don’t tolerate time-wasting – sin matters. We don’t stall in the hope that issues will go away – sin never quietly disappears. We don’t just wait passively – inertia is not the Christian call.
But there are some beautiful reasons to take our time in the pursuit of corporate holiness.
In time
Growing slowly allows the voice of everyone who has been hurt to be heard. In Lamentations 4, Jeremiah provides a slow camera pan around what’s left of Jerusalem. He shows us how each of the inhabitants has been impacted by the Babylonian assault. The experience of princes, prophets, priests, people – women, children – are looked at in turn. There’s no assumption that everyone has been impacted in the same way. No sufferer is left out of view.
Growing slowly provides sinners with time to see the reality of their sin. When David hurt Bathsheba and her husband, he would have known his actions were wrong, but it took time (and the words of a wise prophet) to bring him to the place of confession and hope. Often, we are blind to our sin. It can take months or years for people to understand the depths of pain they have caused. Planning for slow, full repentance is better than fast, superficial acknowledgement of limited wrong.
Growing slowly provides fertile ground for reconciliation. Sin divides. Significant sin divides significantly and that can rarely be overcome overnight. Like Joseph, hurt so badly by his brothers, we can be confident that in the goodness of God true reconciliation is possible, but it’s something to grow towards with solid foundations, not rush towards while wounds still gape and bleed.
Slow progress is difficult. There will be moments when we all want to press hard on the gas. But we have a God who is a shepherd – one who is leading His flock well. Let’s follow Him at His pace – a pace that brings every lamb safely home.
