Hauerwas on the Church

Another gem from Resident Aliens:

For us the world has ended. We may have thought that Jesus came to make nice people even nicer, that Jesus hoped to make a democratic Caesar just a bit more democratic, to make the world a bit better place for the poor. The Sermon [on the Mount], however, collides with such accomodationist thinking. It drives us back to a completely new conception of what it means for people to live with one another. That completely new conception is the church. All that we have heard said of old is thrown up for grabs, demands to be reexamined, and pushed back to square one. Square one is that colony made up of those who are special, different, alien, and distinctive only in the sense that they have heard Jesus say, "Follow me," and have come forth to be part of a new people, a colony formed by hearing his invitation and saying yes. (p. 92)

And again:

The only way for the world to know that it is being redeemed is for the church to point to the Redeemer by being a redeemed people. (p.94)