J. and C. sat with me to talk about getting married. Though
neither one is yet 30, life has beaten them up badly. He was horribly abused as a child, never
learned to read, developed addictions, and did 8 years in state prison. She grew
up in poverty. She married young and then her husband was run down and killed
while intoxicated. Between them, there are 4 kids from multiple relationships,
almost insuring the cycle of dysfunction will continue. They told me their
stories without self-consciousness or self-pity. As we sat together, I distinctly
heard the voice of Jesus say, “I love them, you love them, too.”
On reflection I realized more clearly how people with the
kind of baggage in life that this young couple are dragging around are often
overlooked by Christ’s church, not intentionally, but by default. I hear your objections! “Pastor, we care for
the poor.” Oh yes, we have our food pantry for them. We respond to their calls for financial
assistance and help with electric bills. We put together Thanksgiving and/or
Christmas baskets. And, that’s all good,
but do we invite them into our fellowship? Do we make them our brother, our
sister? Or, do we ‘love them’ only from a distance? I think we need to ask ourselves if our ‘charity’
is mostly offered in an effort to make us
feel good about supposedly loving the poor, while we go on in our privileged
middle class lives content to leave them outside the circle?
We can, and many do, point at J.’s and C.’s multiple problems as
being the result of very poor choices. That is true, but that line of thinking
can slip easily into a subtle kind of pride can that is very much akin to that
of the Pharisee who prayed, “Oh, God, I
thank you that I am not like other people—robbers, crooks, adulterers. ... I
fast twice a week and tithe on all my income. " (Luke 18:11-12, The
Message) The truth is very different
from our perception. Only the touch of God’s grace separates a blessed life
from a troubled one. While there is no
need to feel guilty over our resources, we must
recognize that with privilege comes responsibility. God did not hand us our
resources so that we could isolate ourselves in gated communities or exclusive
suburban fellowships that shut out the
lost and broken. He gave us what we have so that we could do the work of God’s
kingdom, defeating suffering by dealing with the sin that is at the root of it.
We must do more than throw money at the poor. Since the 1960’s
government programs aimed at eradicating poverty, crime, and addiction have
multiplied like rabbits. Billions of dollars are spent annually. What is the
result? Mostly it is the creation of a permanent class of people who are dependent
on government subsidy to survive. Church, let’s rethink the mission that Christ
Jesus left for us. He said, "Go and
make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of
the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have
commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
(Matthew 28:19-20, NIV) That means so
much more than having church services, handing out literature on the street, or
preaching. We make disciples the same
way that Jesus did; by loving and living with the lost, the least, the broken. He didn’t send a sermon! He came Himself “to seek and to save what was lost.” (Luke
19) "Brothers,
think of what you were when you were
called. Not many of you were wise by human standards; not many were
influential; not many were of noble birth. But God chose the foolish things of
the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame
the strong. He chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and
the things that are not—to nullify the things that are, so that no one may
boast before him. It is because of him that you are in Christ Jesus, who has
become for us wisdom from God—that is, our righteousness, holiness and
redemption. Therefore, as it is written: “Let him who boasts boast in the
Lord.” (1 Corinthians 1:26-31, NIV)
Our mission is to resist evil, to seek justice, to love, and
to tell all of the Good News that Christ died to save us from our sin and lives
to give us eternal life. Easy? Not at
all. Simple? No way. A work only for our
free time? You really think so?
"Looking at his
disciples, Jesus said, “Do you have any idea how difficult it is for people who
‘have it all’ to enter God’s kingdom?”
The disciples couldn’t
believe what they were hearing, but Jesus kept on: “You can’t imagine how
difficult. I’d say it’s easier for a camel to go through a needle’s eye than
for the rich to get into God’s kingdom.”
That set the disciples
back on their heels. “Then who has any chance at all?” they asked.
Jesus was blunt: “No chance at all if you
think you can pull it off by yourself. Every chance in the world if you let God
do it.” Peter tried another angle: “We left everything and followed you.” Jesus
said, “Mark my words, no one who sacrifices house, brothers, sisters, mother,
father, children, land—whatever—because of me and the Message will lose out.
They’ll get it all back, but multiplied many times in homes, brothers, sisters,
mothers, children, and land—but also in troubles. And then the bonus of eternal
life! This is once again the Great Reversal: Many who are first will end up
last, and the last first.”
(Mark 10:23-31, The Message)
