We!

We lost! We won! We didn’t even take part!! Who are ‘we’? And when does ‘we’ apply?
I have often commented in these articles about the way we speak and the words we use. And I have been reminded again of this as I listened to a reporter on Radio 5 Live this past week. This reporter pointed out how closely people identify with the national football team, or even simply a football team. We won, we lost - and yet we didn’t take part. And most often we didn’t even see the match. This reporter pointed out how this level of identification is not even reserved for favourite bands. So if we go to a concert by our favourite band, say U2, we never say we played good or we played bad. Interesting!
Now what about the church? What is our level of identification with the church? I have noticed a disconcerting trend in recent times to refer to the church in a way that suggests separation from it. So referring to Airedale Church, of which they are a part, some people will use language like, “such & such happens in Airedale”, as though Airedale Church is something they are not with or part of. And yet the church, and yes this does include that portion known conveniently as Airedale Church, comprises people who have been all bought by the precious blood of Jesus and have been joined to Christ by the Holy Spirit. By the Holy Spirit we are members of one another. We are as much a part of each other as our leg is a part of our physical body. So why can’t we say ‘we’ when referring to the church with which we identify? Are we ashamed of each other? Does thinking that church should be expressed in another way, or is in some way falling short of what the Lord wants, change the essential truth that it is the Body of Christ, and that to the extent that we are part of Christ, so we are part of each other. If any entity deserves to be owned as a ‘we’ it is the church.
Or is it simply that football is a greater religion and its god a greater god than that of our professed Christian faith- GJJ