Faith Venture

Jesus started a mission. He called disciples to do the work.

We have sort of screwed things up. We started calling ourselves Christians instead of Disciples. Then we sort of made it like a club.

But for three centuries, the Jesus movement grew because people saw how the disciples of Jesus lived and they wanted to be part of that.

Jesus said, you’ll know who my followers are by their love. Can we honestly say that about ourselves? About our churches? If yes, fantastic. If no, than as Desi used to say to Lucy, God will say to us, “You’ve got some ‘splainin’ to do.”

Willow Creek Community Church has begun its Celebration of Hope campaign featuring compassion and justice missions of the church. The first message was from Dr. Soong-Chan Rah. His description of how those early Christians lived is one of the best I’ve ever heard. You can click the link to listen for yourself.

In the 19th Century, Christians changed the world–women’s rights, ending child labor, ending slavery in many places, sending missionaries to carry Jesus’ story. By the middle of the 20th Century, Christians had changed and those of us who wanted to be both Christian and pursue justice were seen to be radical, or just weird.

Things are changing again. Disciples of Jesus are once again out in huge numbers carrying Jesus’ message along with our service and passion for justice. I wish this one sticks around for a longer time.

When you read about scary events, look for the helpers. There are always helpers.

Several people hare been writing about this quote from Mr. Rogers. He said his mother told him this when he was small.

It’s true. I bet everyone reading this has rushed to aid in a situation. I can recall some of mine–both when I helped and when I failed to act quickly enough because I failed to understand the situation.

There was an auto accident late at night. It was on the rural Interstate near home. I saw headlights going up and down weirdly. I stopped. As did the only other motorist that night. “Did you see what I did?” he asked.

I had no idea what I’d find as I ran across the median grass and across the other highway lanes. I had never witnessed a traffic accident. I had no training. A young woman had evidently lost control and the car flipped. Miraculously, she was completely uninjured. All she was focused on was finding her cat.

I stayed to calm her down while the other guy drove to a farmhouse we saw in the distance to call for help. I was no hero or anything else. It’s just the first impulse is to help.

Since I really don’t have time or interest to turn on CNN and watch endless repetition and mindless speculation, I miss some stories. In the Case of Boston, the stories of helpers and courage.

Humans do respond positively in a crisis.

But, as Teresinha pointed out about youth in Brazil, sometimes we don’t recognize the crisis. I’ve had training of various types since (sports first aid, first aid, CPR), but I’m no expert. I’ve since learned that first you need to recognize the situation or your training is worthless. There are a couple of times where I simply didn’t recognize the situation and failed to react. But I learn from that experience. Next time, I will know better.

We need to recognize the situations we have that maybe aren’t a single crisis, but rather a systemic crisis. Maybe more of us can point the helpers to situations before they get too destructive. Kind of like all the Christ-followers helping someone.

My good friend from Brazil, Teresinha, wrote a comment on Facebook regarding one of my blog posts about the tragedy in Brazil of so many young men killing each other–she says like flies.

That same day, we have the bombings at the Boston marathon. What can a person be thinking as they assemble devices designed specifically to cause as much death and injury as possible?

Humans have asked why for a long, long time.

People come up with simplistic answers. “They just need Jesus.” Well, yes, that’s obvious. Except when you think of the thousands and thousands of people killed in the name of Jesus. Or, it’s because of single-parent families without a strong male influence. Well, yes. Except that there are many exceptions. Then there are the poor choices people make–like who their peer group will be. I just wrote about Lot, who made that poor choice.

It’s not easy. And it’s sad. It breaks my heart, too.

How do we reach these people early so that they can avoid the violent culture?

I am a member of a United Methodist congregation. The origins of that denomination are with the Anglicans, whose origins in turn are Roman Catholic. All of us practice infant baptism. This is not “believer’s baptism.” Different thing. We do that, too.

But infant baptism really is about the community. The parents and community of believers vow to raise that child to be a follower of Jesus.

Whatever happened to community? To be a safe place where people can come in their weakness and receive blessing and help? To a family with no male role model with the male role models within the believing community?

There will always be troubled and alienated people. But if we were more of a community, maybe we’d help more of them before they take that final, violent act.

I think about the mission work our congregation can do as I am preparing my mind and spirit to lead the effort. Is there just one thing we can do to help even just one young person caught in the dark side? There are millions of followers of Jesus in the world. If most of us reached out to just one or two (or more), think of the number of people we could reach.

But we have to do it in the spirit that Jesus taught. He said that people will know his followers because of their love. Not their judging attitude. Or their righteous attitude. But being the very personification of God’s love.

Meanwhile, the evil one is still at work in the world. We must be on guard.

The other day I tweeted a link to a blog that discussed the merits of being nice. Someone responded that nice isn’t always good because people will misconstrue nice as being weak and will then try to take advantage of you.

Now, if you don’t know about “tweeting” (something you do when you send a message out to your followers on Twitter) or “links” (something you can click on to go to another page), don’t worry. I was just sharing something interesting with my 1,750 + followers on Twitter.

Can you be nice, humble even, and still be strong?

I answered back that you can be strong and be nice.

Jesus was not weak. Some 19th Century philosophers, notably Nietzsche, thought he was. They had that same notion as my questioner. If Jesus had been strong, he would have fought and conquered both the Romans and the Jewish leaders.

Actually, what Jesus did required strength. He had options. He chose the one that best served others. Starting a war would have been a disaster. Thousands would have died–as they did in the rebellion that occurred 30-some years later that resulted in the destruction of the Temple.

Jesus is always my guide in these matters. Think on his daily life. He might be tired and cranky, but if someone came to him with a problem, he set aside his own problems and dealt with the person.

Nietzsche had it wrong philosophically. He was a bit of a prophet, though, in that he foresaw the rise of people who thought of themselves as the Übermensch–sometimes translated as “Superman.” (yes, the beginning of the comic book hero) But he totally misunderstood the strength of Jesus.

Think about how you can maintain your core strength and beliefs and yet humble yourself. Being humble simply means to put God and others before yourself. The opposite of pride–or the prevalent disease of our day, narcissism. Because of my strength, I can serve. That might be a good mantra for meditation occasionally. Remind you of your focus and your strength.

Because of my strength, I can serve.