That Sleek Luxury Yacht Is Not the Barque of Christ
What would a lifeboat sent by Christ actually look like?
One name for the church is the barque of Christ. That is an old word that means the ship, the boat. We use that term because in reality the image means the ship is a lifeboat. Her cargo is the faithful on the way to salvation from the place that leads them to nowhere but death. We seek to bring people to the kingdom and to the king where they will celebrate his love in their lives. Granted, we are not called to be passengers on the ship as if we were just passengers on a bus or plane — sitting there doing nothing and waiting to arrive at our destination port. Maybe we can see ourselves like those who run a sailing ship where all are involved in making sure the ship sails through good and bad weather and through every storm.
Let’s put it another way. You are stranded on an island and waiting for someone to send you a boat. When the rescue vessel arrives, it is nothing more than what many call a rust bucket. It is old, not well kept up with a sputtering motor and rust all over the surface of the vessel. The captain assures you that despite the appearances that the boat will take you to safety. Are you going to say no?
Is the church a rust bucket?
This is the church. It is not the sleek clipper ship of old, it is more the rust bucket. She is filled with problematic areas that many times disappoint us and anger us. However, this is the ship that Jesus sent to save us. This is the one that He launched. This is the one that the Holy Spirit launched when He came down upon the Apostles. She has all her problems and her sputtering motor and rust spots but she is still the one vehicle that Jesus sent.
If we choose instead to go find the sleek, luxurious clipper ship to save us then we are accepting our salvation our way. When we step on board the rust bucket we accept our salvation God’s way.
This is what the apostles did. Only one walked away and he was not saved. The rest, despite their confusion and even disappointment, stayed and they created a revolution that continues to this day.
Don’t go away mad
When people write to me that they are going to leave the Church, I respond: “Good-bye” but then I tell them before they leave to check out the sixth chapter of the Gospel of John.
“Jesus says one sentence, five thousand people walk away. Twelve remain. Of those twelve, eleven changed the world. Which group do you want to belong in?”
That is the reality. Jesus makes that stark statement that unless they eat his flesh and drink his blood they will have no life within them. This becomes such a shocking statement that all but the apostles walk away. Remember, these are the same people who followed him unprepared. Jesus just finished feeding them with loaves and fish miraculously changed into an abundant number. However, he shocked them into realizing that his true food was not something we consumed by the mouth but what we embraced as his wisdom from above. Without it we will only pursue the food that feeds us physically, not spiritually.
The people cannot accept the phraseology of his stark message and they walk away. The apostles remain. They, at that point, make their choice that they will accept Jesus on his terms and not on their own. Judas alone does not make the full conversion. The rest do. They later change the world because of their choice at that moment.
The rust bucket to safety
This is the point of the imperfect manifestation of the perfect Church. It would be easy to accept Jesus on his terms if his terms matched our own. So, the hard part is to believe that the Church is filled with the spirit of God but appears to be a rust bucket.
We do not know if, when the Lord arrives at the second coming, this rust bucket will have sputtered for the last time and finally stalled. What we do know is that it is a strong boat that looks like a rust bucket but God himself is leading us. We either trust in God to bring us to salvation on it or we do not and seek another boat. That sleek yacht that is powerful with aluminum sails and twin gas turbine motors, so that nothing can stop it, is your preferred vessel. It has luxury quarters and fine food. However, by leaving the rust bucket and getting onto the luxury ship that promises to bring you to salvation, you accept your salvation on your terms and not Christ’s. That is the easy part, the hard part is to accept it on His terms and that requires turning away from the luxury yacht and jumping on the rust bucket. That involves total trust in Him and even trepidation but that is what Christ calls us to do. Jesus promises the rust bucket will make it. The other boat appears solid but your ticket on it comes with no guarantees.
The apostles accept Jesus on those same terms when they chose not to walk away in John 6. They too had doubts and trepidation. They left everything to follow Christ and staked their reputation, their future, their families and their whole lives on His words. Peter said it best after Jesus asked if they would leave Him too. “To whom shall we go?”
Just as there is no alternative Catholic Church, there is no alternative to Christ. There is Christ and either you follow him or you do not. There is no middle ground.
The only way to encounter Christ is to accept his message on His terms and it will never appear to your liking. This is the problem with the Church, she will never meet our expectations. She will always disappoint us but it is she whom Christ sent to save us.
This is an excerpt from the new book coming in the late Winter, early Spring. It is currently untitled.