People in Need of Change Helping People in Need of Change

In order to grow, to become, we have to be part of a change process. In order to grow, we sometimes need to get rid of old memories, old habits and at times even well loved traditions. Having made space, being freed from past burdens, can we take part of a fresh presence. After all, following the thinking of Albert Einstein; "We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking that created them."

What is the best news you can imagine? What is your . . . "If only . . . " hope and dream? Is it becoming rich and powerful? Perhaps it would be the job you always wanted? Maybe your spouse would suddenly change and become the person you thought he would be? Perhaps it is you child who has gone astray? What would be your best news? But remember, solving our problems with the same thinking that created them is an impossibility. We need new thinking, a hope that is not born out of the only life we know.

Perhaps, we need to ask the question in another way. What was your reason for getting up this morning, or going to work? What moves and motivates you through the days and weeks and month and years of life? What is so worthwhile that you are willing to give it your time, talents ad energy? What is so significant that you turn your whole life upside down to achieve it? What is so significant that makes everything worthwhile? 

These and similar questions have nothing to do with fantasies, dreams, or unrealistic expectations. These questions are based on historical facts and present realities around one person . . . Jesus Christ. I believe, his life penetrates the harshest human reality with life-altering hope because he is from above.

But to "get" the need for a new thinking we need to understand the whole story from the beginning . . . God created the heavens and the earth. The environment was lush and rich, there were no unfed stomachs or diseases to be feared, no unhealthy competition or power struggle, no discrimination or fear, no sexual exploitation or lust and self-worship. There was love, and trust. There was no struggle with addiction, anxiety, mixed motives, there was no painful history to be feared. Even God, in the cool of the day walk among the people, his creation and they knew him and he knew them. Life was as it was intended to be, better than we can ever imagine or dream of from our sin-scarred presence. Yet, this all changed in an instant. Sin had entered, and fear, guilt, shame and deflection of responsibility became standard human expressions in life. Creation, once in perfect harmony now groans under the weight of the curse. All the amazing beauty is now deeply scarred, but not permanently. Although sin altered every thought, desire, word and even hope, and although sin lead to a world of double-mindedness and self-worship there is a hope out of this world. Though we live in a world where people lie, cheat, hide and deny, where people suffer from the hands of others, from unspeakable acts of violence to momentary thoughtlessness, from intentional indifference to unintentional ignorance there is hope.

God was unwilling to stay it that way in the garden, and though he pronounced judgement he also pronounced hope. And while it looks as if nothing has changed since the prayer on the cross; "Father, forgive them for they do not know what they are doing," Those of us who lived without the hope of the gospel for a time, know that to be false. I changed . . . for the better; I am changing for the better and I am in need of ongoing change. But change does not come without outside influence . . . we need one another, we are being given to one another for that reason because we are people in need of change while helping people in need of change. People of hope helping people without hope not because they have it altogether but because they have something worth getting up for in the morning.

Mark records this hope in the first chapter as found in Jesus' words; "The time has come, The kingdom of God is near. Repent [change] and believe [new thinking] the Good News." These few words are the beginning of our hope . . . and it calls for change.

In our self-absorbed culture in which we have grown up, and which morals and values have informed us in the past, we need each other to see the grandeur of these words; "The time has come, . . ." echoed once again on the cross; "It is fulfilled." We need to be careful that we do not fall into the same temptation as Adam and Eve and shrink God's promise to our needs and desires and thinking. Jesus did not come and die and rose to make our agenda possible, to make our dreams come true, but to draw us into something more amazing, something not of this world.

So, don't be afraid of change. You may loose something good, but you will gain something better.

Nobody said it would be easy

“I asked participants who claimed to be "strong followers of Jesus" whether Jesus spent time with the poor. Nearly 80 percent said yes. Later in the survey, I sneaked in another question, I asked this same group of strong followers whether they spent time wit the poor, and less than 2 percent said they did. I learned a powerful lesson: We can admire and worship Jesus without doing what he did. We can applaud what he preached and stood for without caring about the same things. We can adore his cross without taking up ours. I had come to see that the great tragedy of the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor.”

― Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical 

Another quote from him is also somewhat harsh on the church, but I think he is right again when he writes;
“We do need to be born again, since Jesus said that to a guy named Nicodemus. But if you tell me I have to be born again to enter the Kingdom of God, I can tell you that you have to sell everything you have and give it to the poor, because Jesus said that to one guy, too. But I guess that's why God invented highlighers, so we can highlight the parts we like and ignore the rest.”  

As I read this, I was reminded of a similar incident I had encountered some time ago. I spoke of the necessity to dine with people we have little if anything in common with, besides perhaps both being made in the image of God. That certainly would include as I pointed out in my sermon, prostitutes, people at the very outskirt of our society today whoever that might be. What was shocking to me then and even today was that a former pastor approached me and with an irritated voice asked; Do you actually mean that we should eat with prostitutes?  If the church has no modern examples to follow, we will end up more bewildered, disoriented, and perplexed about the life of Jesus than the Pharisees were. We, the church, will not only be unclear about the message and its consequences here and now  but the people who are listening and watching will end up unsure and confused because our lives do not line up, neither with the words nor with the life of Jesus.
The longer I read God's word, the more I am convinced that none of it is written to make us feel good about ourselves, but rather to force us to look into the mirror and by God's grace to find the reflection of Jesus. God's word is not intended to be used as a pacifier for our souls but should lead us to face the cross, to take up our cross and make us feel good about God.
And so, let us not judge the world but perhaps let us be a bit tougher on ourselves; How does my/our lives reflect the cross we bear?

Each day we find ourselves at points of choices. And each day people fly by the seat of their pants, hoping that things will turn out OK. Some days they do indeed, in the short run. At the end they don’t, realizing that we have ended up running around without lasting priorities and everlasting focus, we wish someone would have been frank rather than polite with us. 

Time to grow up

Church is not a place nor a building, but a diverse group of people from a variety of backgrounds, nations, races and ages. Therefore the local church cannot possible be a rigidly structured organization but rather is a living family that constantly experiences changes and with it challenges. Those changes and challenges come through new members, who experience and express freedom and creativity in the belonging Jesus gave his life for. New family members, no matter what will always challenge the status quo. After all they want to learn, want to know, and want to understand all the while the older once, those who are being challenges to be teachers have to learn to be weaned from milk. Challenging indeed and yet since it is Christ who builds his Church, I have great hope for us who like milk all too much.

Jesus lived differently

It's kind of interesting and sad at the same time that after coming to understand Jesus as the Christ, the Son of the Living God, many end up distancing themselves from all they used to hang out with the "unchurched" or perhaps we have other terms we may want to use.

Jesus lived differently. One of harshest criticisms Jesus faced was that He spent time with sinners, even ate with them. He intentionally associated with the no longer welcomed and no longer appreciated by the religious folks, he associated with women, foreigners, prostitutes, the sick and the poor, elevated them from the dust and sat with them.
To be fair, it is a natural thing for people to want to be around others who are similar, in their thinking, behaviour, values, and their culture likely more than anything. For that reason perhaps there are such things as ethnic churches, keeping a distance from the different and by some strange coincidence remain attached to the old.  How many of us could be accused of spending too much time with the “others" or whatever other term we may want to use?
Yes, it is a natural thing for Christians to want to be around other Christians, after all something special happens in the fellowship of believers. We worship freely, we feel understood and share something deeply important to us. Hanging out with like-minded people who at the outside “have their stuff together” can be a wonderful thing. But what about the those who struggle, who perhaps live a more approachable and transparent life around us? Are we staying away from them just as the religious people in Jesus time, the Pharisees? 

I for ones have found the one thing, the one person that meets the need in my life, but somehow I keep a distance from those who need the very thing, the very person I’ve found. I don’t think this is intentional, but it does happen, and in the end, our intentions don’t matter, our belief don't matter unless it becomes a believe, an action transforming us from the inside out..

Having our needs met we move on, oblivious perhaps even indifferent to a world that is falling apart all around us.

Community expands our understanding and experience of God

One of the helpful books I have come along in these days is one from Tim Conder; The Church in transition. Books sometimes give words to my thoughts, help me to formulate them clearer and come to a deeper appreciation of different opinions. I think too many church leader don't read enough which is affecting community formation . . . too often we dwell in our own little worlds and think that is all there is. But community expands our understanding and experience of God beyond the limitation of our own individual experiences and personalities or that of our church and denomination. Too often do we interpret of "being of like mind" that we have to think and like all the same, fearing the very gift that God offers to us; diversity. And fear creates at best indifference toward those who are different but certainly fragmentation of the Church into small pockets where self-interest and individualism can flourish. Rather than being united by a common love to God and to one another, we are being divided by man made forms of worship, man made culture, a racial divide, and much more. These realities of egos, and the desire for independence encourages almost a competing spirit between churches. And I can't help it, but I feel that our lives and our churches are profoundly irrelevant to the people around us. Especially we we only dabble in the differences of doctrines and forms between each other, never learning the needs of our common neigbours. In our disunity and competitive spirit, the Christian message, the gospel has disintegrated into the static of many rival local stories and values vying for attention and loyalty.
Independence  and freedom  are to be values, but our Western's culture idolization of individualism at the expense of interdependence is un-biblical. The importance of church leadership lies in their ability to moderate the impact of the internalization of faith as a personal practice and hence individualism. After all the church will not be known by its form of worship or the multitude of detailed doctrine but by the love we have for one another in our diversity.  

The church needs to become less a place but people who are clearly visible to the world. We need to be people who are faithful not only to our promises, but also to our purpose, one of which is to love our neighbour and our enemies alike. If we would indeed do that unconditionally, we would testify to the amazing community-restoring love of God. But how does that loving looks like, how does my neighbour experiences this love?
As we have moved into a new neigbourhood, I realize that to be a true question for me. The neigbours are nice, some even are attending churches, are professing Christians who "know" of each other for years, and now we are the new people on the block. How do we fit in, but in a way that shows love rather than the normal niceness that covers up our actual indifference? 
As we moved in, many people from the former church helped us . . .and to my surprise that alone was a testimony of a love that our new neighbour never had experienced. We had friends, and not just two or three who gave up hours and even days just to help us. Love was visible and active, but how is my love visible and active in my new neighbourhood?