Sinners and Carpenters

We are supposed to be witnesses to the fact that God in Christ has taken away the sins of the whole world. But by insisting on the moral irreproachability of even minor functionaries within the witnessing community, we are effectively saying that we cannot have in our midst any recognizable representatives of the sinfulness that is so obviously God's cup of tea. Which is manifest nonsense, of course, because one of the things all Christians are supposed to do ad nauseam is tell God what miserable sinners they are. Quite frankly, it makes the church look a bit like a carpenter who, while he claims to be the best woodworker in town, tells you that unfortunately he can't repair your house because he's allergic to wood. __From The Astonished Heart by Robert Farrar Capon__