John 17:14-16 — I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.

There is a poem that I love by the Welsh poet Dylan Thomas that starts “Do not go gentle into that good night” — old men, the poet says, should not slip meekly into death, but should fiercely, furiously, resist. On Sunday, I wrote of the threats of nationalism and post-modernism to the Church. As I have thought more about a subject that bothers me quite a bit … the unity and future of the church … it seems to me that some parts of the Western church, at least, are like that old man slipping passively into decline and obscurity, and I have been praying and meditating about what a response might be.
I think there’s a clue in the first verse of this this little hymn by Cecil Frances Alexander that I learnt as a child:

There is a green hill far away,
outside a city wall,
where our dear Lord was crucified
who died to save us all.

Jesus was not the establishment man! Nor was He interested in His own position, or status, or wealth. He emptied Himself of His position and lowered Himself — even to a death outside the city wall.
Is this what the church needs to do? I’m not saying offer itself up for crucifixion — but what might happen if the church decided it didn’t need — or want — to be part of the establishment, part of the power structures of “the world”?
It’s easy to forget that the original church was anything but a big establishment institution — and though there were some “comfortable middle-class” early Christians, there’s nothing to suggest that they were a majority, or the automatic choice for leadership positions. Does today’s church need to work back to that idea? Jesus prays not that His disciples should be removed from the world, but that they should be protected from the world’s influence. Alexander MacLaren comments “Security from evil is given that we may be wholly devoted to the service of God. The evil in the world is the great hindrance to that.” Is this security not what we should wish for the Church rather than the security of respectability and financial strength?
I feel sure that it is time for every church to be mindfully considering whether it is time to be “the church outside” …