4. Made a searching and fearless moral inventory of ourselves.
This is a difficult step but there are a number of things that will make it a lot easier. One of those I want to talk about today is one of those things that makes the AA environment for change more suitable than your typical church environment. In AA, this kind of moral assessment is going on all the time. You’re not the odd man out when you come up with damaging realities on your moral inventory list. No one’s going to go, “You did what? Well at least I haven’t dropped that far!” No, it’s quite the opposite. More like, “That’s nothing. Wait until you hear what I did.” It’s an exercise in “one-downmanship” instead of one-upmanship.
There is a bottom line in AA: everyone is an alcoholic. You are an alcoholic among alcoholics. And that’s comforting. Everyone’s going through the same thing you’re going through. That’s precisely what’s behind the simple greeting of, “Hi, my name is John, and I’m an alcoholic,” and everyone bellows, “Hi John!” It’s that response that is so important. It’s enthusiastic. It’s boisterous. It’s welcoming. It says, “Hi John. We know. You’re among friends. It’s safe here. We’re not afraid of that label; in fact, that’s what got us in the door. Not that we’re proud of what we’ve done, but we’re glad for the association — the common line. We all start at the bottom here; and we don’t have anything to prove.”
Phew! How does that make you feel? Welcome. That’s why here at the Catch, we call it the Gospel of Welcome. Everyone’s welcome. Sinners are welcome.
I want you to read that last paragraph substituting “sinner” for “alcoholic,” and see what happens. In fact, I’ll do it for you. Here it is:
There is a bottom line in church: everyone is a sinner. You are a sinner among sinners. And that’s comforting. Everyone’s going through the same thing you’re going through. That’s precisely what’s behind the simple greeting of, “Hi, my name is John, and I’m an sinner,” and everyone bellows, “Hi John!” It’s that response that is so important. It’s enthusiastic. It’s boisterous. It’s welcoming. It says, “Hi John. We know. You’re among friends. It’s safe here. We’re not afraid of that label; in fact, that’s what got us in the door. Not that we’re proud of what we’ve done, but we’re glad for the association — the common line. We all start at the bottom here; and we don’t have anything to prove.”
How does that make you feel? No more judgment. No measuring of righteousness. No spiritual competition. Don’t you want to go to this church? Isn’t this the type of environment that makes a moral inventory much easier? To the extent that we can live like this is the extent to which we are walking in the light.
“But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin.
If we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living in the truth. But if we confess our sins to him, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.” (1 John 1:8,9)
Way before we are saints, we are sinners saved by grace.
“Hi, my name is John, and I’m a sinner.” What’s your response going to be?
Questions:
What response do you think you might get in most churches if you started out like this?
Why is church so different?
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