The Feet of Faith
Just a quick thought about your faith and mine.
How real is it? What does it count for in the end? How are you separated at the end of all things? Jesus said at the end he will divide, as it were, the sheep from the goats. To the sheep he will say, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for your since the creation of the world."
And then he lists 6 things that mark these sheep as sheep:
1. I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.
2. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.
3. I was a stranger and you invited me in.
4. I needed clothes and you did clothe me.
5. I was sick and you looked after me.
6. I was in prison and you come to visit me.
The sheep are baffled because they don't remember seeing Jesus in any of these situations. But he says, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."
That's heavy. It's found in Matthew 25:31-46.
Is this a checklist? It's easy to view as a checklist ... but I am not sure. I am resisting checklists whenever possible.
But what cannot be dismissed is the summation: when you do it for the least, you do it for Jesus. Another of the "stoop to conquer" values.
So maybe the place to start is the principal: we need to serve the "least of these" in our world today. The hungry, thirsty, foreigners, naked, sick and imprisoned ... not so much a checklist but a list of places to start looking.
Stop serving the upper middle class who looks like you, talks like you, hangs out where you hang out, listens to your music and "gets" you. What kind of service is it really when you gather only to affirm each other and have collective group-think about topics of minimal impact. How about envisioning a ministry - a personal, intimate ministry - to someone who is so different from you that everyone around you (and around them) will notice. That's salty. That's bright.
I am lamenting the fact that I really don't have any friends who are agnostic, unsaved or even unpolished (really).
I think there is a real value to having cross-cultural, cross-socio-economic friends. Instead of sitting around agreeing with each other all the time because we gravitate towards the same world-view, we could be a voice of difference in somebody's life. A friend where friends were not looked for. Imagine that.
And all without being a professional minister. Could it possibly work?
How real is it? What does it count for in the end? How are you separated at the end of all things? Jesus said at the end he will divide, as it were, the sheep from the goats. To the sheep he will say, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for your since the creation of the world."
And then he lists 6 things that mark these sheep as sheep:
1. I was hungry and you gave me something to eat.
2. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink.
3. I was a stranger and you invited me in.
4. I needed clothes and you did clothe me.
5. I was sick and you looked after me.
6. I was in prison and you come to visit me.
The sheep are baffled because they don't remember seeing Jesus in any of these situations. But he says, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."
That's heavy. It's found in Matthew 25:31-46.
Is this a checklist? It's easy to view as a checklist ... but I am not sure. I am resisting checklists whenever possible.
But what cannot be dismissed is the summation: when you do it for the least, you do it for Jesus. Another of the "stoop to conquer" values.
So maybe the place to start is the principal: we need to serve the "least of these" in our world today. The hungry, thirsty, foreigners, naked, sick and imprisoned ... not so much a checklist but a list of places to start looking.
Stop serving the upper middle class who looks like you, talks like you, hangs out where you hang out, listens to your music and "gets" you. What kind of service is it really when you gather only to affirm each other and have collective group-think about topics of minimal impact. How about envisioning a ministry - a personal, intimate ministry - to someone who is so different from you that everyone around you (and around them) will notice. That's salty. That's bright.
I am lamenting the fact that I really don't have any friends who are agnostic, unsaved or even unpolished (really).
I think there is a real value to having cross-cultural, cross-socio-economic friends. Instead of sitting around agreeing with each other all the time because we gravitate towards the same world-view, we could be a voice of difference in somebody's life. A friend where friends were not looked for. Imagine that.
And all without being a professional minister. Could it possibly work?
posted by TT | 5:30 PM
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