THE JOURNEY TOWARDS THE WORLD
The Good Samaritan is a story that is familiar to most people in the western world today, even people without religious affiliation or any real knowlege of the Bible. Yet within that parable I find one detail in particular that really grabs my attention. Who is the man who takes a risk to help the man in the ditch? It was a Samaritan. I think Jesus was one hundred percent intentional in choosing a Samaritan as the protagonist in his story of love. When the story of the Good Samaritan was first told, Jesus told it to a Jewish lawyer; in other words, this story is addressed to the religious-folks, the "Churchies", as it were. Therefore, those of us who are pew-dwellers need to pay close attention to the point that Jesus is making by including a Samaritan in his story.
Samaritans were absolute scum in the minds of the Jews of Jesus' day. They were half-breeds, outsiders, unclean and pretty much worse than dirt. They only had a partial understanding of God's law, and they didn't participate in the same religious ceremonies that the Israelites did. To put it another way, the Jews had it together, they were God's chosen people, and the Samaritans weren't, plain and simple. Yet in the story that Jesus tells, it is the Samaritan that gets it right. This outsider is the one who actually fulfills God's law. It is the priests who can't see the love of God in front of their eyes.
The question that has plagued me is this: Why is the world so much better at helping others than the Church is? Now, this is a huge generalization, and I realize that there are huge issues that need to be considered, but the question desperately needs to be asked. Why is the Church regularily out-done in loving others. Throughout the history of the Christianity, the Church has done amazing things to help the world, radical things. Yet in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the rest of the world doesn't even expect the Church to do anything anymore because we have let others become the forces that reach out to help. Our failure to risk reaching out to others has crippled our relevance to our culture and obscured the message of the Gospel for many. Why is it that Bono and Oprah are doing more than the Church to help end the Aids crisis in Africa? Why is it that my hippy boss at the cheese store is more active in human rights issues than any single Christian I know? Why did Churches in North America spend three times what it would cost to feed the entire country of Ethiopia for a year on church building projects in 2004? One of the greatest tragedies of this generation is that in far too many cases, pagans and Samaritans are showing Christ-like love to the world and Christians are not.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you agree or disagree? What can be done to live the love that we so easily preach?
The Good Samaritan is a story that is familiar to most people in the western world today, even people without religious affiliation or any real knowlege of the Bible. Yet within that parable I find one detail in particular that really grabs my attention. Who is the man who takes a risk to help the man in the ditch? It was a Samaritan. I think Jesus was one hundred percent intentional in choosing a Samaritan as the protagonist in his story of love. When the story of the Good Samaritan was first told, Jesus told it to a Jewish lawyer; in other words, this story is addressed to the religious-folks, the "Churchies", as it were. Therefore, those of us who are pew-dwellers need to pay close attention to the point that Jesus is making by including a Samaritan in his story.
Samaritans were absolute scum in the minds of the Jews of Jesus' day. They were half-breeds, outsiders, unclean and pretty much worse than dirt. They only had a partial understanding of God's law, and they didn't participate in the same religious ceremonies that the Israelites did. To put it another way, the Jews had it together, they were God's chosen people, and the Samaritans weren't, plain and simple. Yet in the story that Jesus tells, it is the Samaritan that gets it right. This outsider is the one who actually fulfills God's law. It is the priests who can't see the love of God in front of their eyes.
The question that has plagued me is this: Why is the world so much better at helping others than the Church is? Now, this is a huge generalization, and I realize that there are huge issues that need to be considered, but the question desperately needs to be asked. Why is the Church regularily out-done in loving others. Throughout the history of the Christianity, the Church has done amazing things to help the world, radical things. Yet in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, the rest of the world doesn't even expect the Church to do anything anymore because we have let others become the forces that reach out to help. Our failure to risk reaching out to others has crippled our relevance to our culture and obscured the message of the Gospel for many. Why is it that Bono and Oprah are doing more than the Church to help end the Aids crisis in Africa? Why is it that my hippy boss at the cheese store is more active in human rights issues than any single Christian I know? Why did Churches in North America spend three times what it would cost to feed the entire country of Ethiopia for a year on church building projects in 2004? One of the greatest tragedies of this generation is that in far too many cases, pagans and Samaritans are showing Christ-like love to the world and Christians are not.
What are your thoughts on this? Do you agree or disagree? What can be done to live the love that we so easily preach?
posted by Journey Church at 12:29 p.m.
3 Comments:
Good questions Chris!
You're right, Christians do not have the reputation in the world anymore as being the people who love those who need the most love. Although, I'm not sure God cares about whether we have a reputation for serving as much as He cares that we're actually serving(!), but your point remians.
So...why does the church not always love the world the way Jesus did? I'm pretty sure it has something to do with the fact that we've created a monster and kept it well fed for quite some time. Let's call that monster "consumer faith". Consumer faith's primary question as a Christian in the world is "How can I benefit from being a Christian?" It's not a bad question, it's just premature. Jesus wants us to benefit from the abundant life He offers, but He wasn't talking about having lots of nice stuff or having an entertaining preacher or having a government that keeps us safe and comfortable in our worldview. He wanted us to put others' interests before our own, whether that person is the AIDS baby in Zambia, the woman on the C-Train, or the man sitting next to us on Sunday morning. We've put our own interests first for too long as individuals in the church and it should come as no surprise that the reflection of that is a church that looks to its own interests before the world's.
I'll be the first to admit that I am WAY too much a part of this problem, and I think the step I need to take on this journey is to find ways every day to stop feeding the monster and start acting on what is best for the person next to me rather than what I think is best for me. And the beautiful, profound, mysterious thing about life in the way of Jesus is that this kind of approach to life is exactly what's best for me.
Malcolm
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Not sure about that last comment being on topic????
Anyway, good points Malcolm and Chris. I think that until we start treating whom we already consider "brothers" and "sisters" with sincere love and caring, we can not truly approach the world with sincere love and caring. Sure, it can be an adrenalin rush at first when we meet a stranger, teach him about Jesus, the Bible and even convert him/her to a life of serving God. The problem is then at what point do they too fall by the wayside due to the lack of sincerity we have already shown to our current "brothers" and "sisters" in Christ?
My point in a nutshell is we concentrate too much on saving the lost, and not enough on loving our current family. It can be described as a spaghetti strainer; the big wet noodles being new converts, while the water they cooked in, the current family is lost in the shuffle. Of course, not ALL the water is lost, but a lot of it is. (Wet spaghetti).
Hope that made sense after all my years at Bible College....I didn't pay much attention. Just using past and current experiences with church family experiences.
Later........
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