A Reflection for the Urban Ministry, Chattanooga, TN, April 13,
2015
OT Reading: Psalms 133
NT Reading: Acts 4: 32-38
This post concludes a two-post series on discipleship, also
known as Christian advocacy. Using the description of the early congregation of
believers in the Acts of the Apostles, we find the same message about the
abused and oppressed that we found in Mark. Christians find discipleship in the
Galilees of the world, giving of themselves with hands-on ministry inspired by compassion for their brothers
and sisters.
Last week on Easter we considered the
conclusion of Mark’s gospel. Mark concludes his gospel saying the earthly life of
Jesus ended where it began, in Galilee. Galilee is the outlying land on the
Jordan River where the residents were abused and oppressed by both Rome and
Jerusalem.
Mark invites the reader to complete the
gospel story by finding one’s own Galilee and bringing hands-on ministry as a
disciple walking and acting in the world as Jesus did. This is actually a more
elegant and subtle way to state the great call and commission than we read in Matthew, Luke and John.
The pervasive evidence of Christianity
in the world today makes it clear that the women who fled the tomb in amazement
and with the fear of being in the Lord’s presence “and told no one” eventual
did speak of their experience.
Today we read of the witness in the
Acts of the Apostles. It reveals the life of the earliest Church. (I seldom use
the word “church” because in our modern day it implies a building, and edifice,
even a particular, post-Reformation dogmatic approach to Christianity, such as
the Presbyterian Church or the Southern Baptist Church.)
I will use the word “church” in our
discussion of Acts with some hesitancy, because even though in the earliest
days while Christians were part of the synagogue, either “God fearers” or Jews,
there is evidence of active congregations across the Palestine and Egypt very
soon after the death and resurrection of Jesus.
(God-fearers” were gentile people who respected and were strongly attracted to Judaism.)
These verses from Acts also emphasize the
caution in my previous post of not letting Christian advocacy for spiritual
justice degenerate into “feel-good” or political advocacy for only social
justice.
According to Luke (who wrote the Acts
of the Apostles) the early believers congregated into a community whose primary
focus was proclamation of the gospel amidst their own exercise of justice and
mercy to each other (Acts 4:32-35). There were none in need because the wealthy
among them sold land and possessions for the good of all. They lived a life in
common supportive fellowship.
In other words, everyone pooled their
resources to support each other and the Apostles who “gave their testimony to the
resurrection of the Lord Jesus." The consequence was a life where “great grace
was upon them all.” (Acts 4:33).
If you read the OT passage, Psalms 133,
it sounds as if it describes perfectly the atmosphere of unity this first church. (It also sounds a little like Peter at the transfiguration!)
People in our modern day may dismiss
this early ideal as impractical socialism or communism. Or we may say, "Well those folks
thought Jesus' return was impending and therefore possessions meant little and were fleeting. It really isn't practical today."
But look around now. Now we have preachers as
legislators voting against the state helping the poor. We have popular televangelists such as Creflo Dollar asking his parishioners all to donate $300 each so he can buy a new private jet. We have congregations investing millions of dollars in buildings, and some denominations miserly guarding their multi-billion dollar stock holdings when people are starving and even their pastors can barely afford medical insurance. (A small percent of the annual average earned interest would pay for all the health insurance of all pastors in its denomination. Re-read Acts 4:32-38 and asks how well this refusal to share the largesse of the denomination fits with the early Church.) We have radio and televangelists asking the
flock to send in $5, $20 even $60 for a devotional series or for a bible by credit card on-line!
Bear in mind, that even after 200
years, church leaders such as Justin Martyr (100-165 CE) counseling
believers to share resources with the needy, and Tertullian (155-240 CE) counseling not to particulate in the affairs of the state, not even to wear the
laurel crown, i.e., not to serve as a Roman soldier, and to endure persecution
with the strength of faith.
The early Christians lived a life radically different from the status quo.
They put the welfare of all above their personal welfare because their mission
was living their faith in the Good News.
We must heed Mark 9:38-42, and take care not to work against others who are engaged in authentic ministry, but these solicitations clearly prey on the naive, and seem to ignore true opportunities to further ministry in the world. They seem to symbolize how far into hypocrisy much of the modern “church” has fallen. How do we help uplift them? Can we? Let us make it personal.
Imagine one Sunday you hear that one
of your fellow congregants with a very sick child has lost their job leaving
them no way to afford the medications necessary for the child’s health. The
medications cost about $2,000/month. You don’t have that kind of cash around, but in keeping with the example in Acts, would
you go out and sell your car in order to pay for the medications, even though
it means you have to walk to wor, ride the bus or depend on a friend to take you to work?
What has a greater message of Christian duty, fellowship and Christian mercy, selling your car for medication for a child who is not even your own, or marching around with signs before the office of a local
politician who opposes extending the Affordable Care Act? What if the child died while you marched?
These verses in Acts describe congregants
full of hope, grace and faith in the gospel message. They were writing the resolution
of Mark’s gospel!
What has happened to God’s Church today?
Even in the earliest time there were seeds of resentment and bindings to worldly wealth that some could not resist. If you
like, you can read on through the first eleven
verses of Acts 5 of the difficult and hard story of Ananias and Sapphiria, Even then in the
midst of the time when the Church was a close as it comes to having pure
compassion, greed and susceptibility to it was present.
Who wants to forgo an iPad, a new phone,
even a fancy iWatch, or a favorite latte? Are we more concerned about the plight of
starving dogs and cats than starving people in the neighborhood around our
ministry offices? Perhaps we have let the weeds take over fertile fields.
Now, to the extent the way we treat our pets and the environment is a
consequence of our loyalty to the spiritual and physical welfare of our fellow
human beings, there may be Christian virtue in
advocacy for humane treatment pets (and the environment). But always remember, you may stop them from harming an animal but you cannot change their spiritual poverty by intimidating them. Our challenge is not the dogs and cats, but
Even in the second century Tertullian said (line 113) “So,
then, the circumstances of the (Apostles’) mission being to preach first to the
lost sheep of the house of Israel... therefore, this preaching might be fully
accomplished in the case of those among whom this behoved first of all to be
carried out—that the sons might receive bread before the dogs...”
I found comfort in my pets when I had the space that did not force them into
cramped quarters caged from all that makes them great. My purpose is not to
pillory the SPCA and its supporters but to ask that we open out eyes to how our
preoccupation with luxury and animals has blinded us to the reality of our Christian
vocation.
We must always ask the question, are we blind guides seeking causes to
advocate in order to assuage our desires for justice but damage our hearts?
Perhaps the true test of faith for each of us, and it is your choice, not mine, is to test your
own faith, to consider that special word I mentioned in my last
post, compassion.
When Jesus looked out on the hungry crowd that had followed him for
three days, he was filled with compassion
for them. When the Samaritan returning down from Jerusalem saw the man lying in
the ditch beside the road beaten perhaps to death by robbers, he had compassion for him and immediately came to his aid. When the
father saw the dissolute (prodigal) son on the road heading back home, he was
filled with compassion for him.
This Greek word, splanchnizomai, means literally to experience a gut-wrenching emotion, or in modern words, heart-wrenching
compassion so strong it wounds one’s soul and forces us into immediate action towards the other. It is a word used in the New Testament only a few
times (about 7), and every time it is used it describes the emotion Jesus felt towards
his fellow humanity, or in these two instances of other humans, the powerful positive emotion that the father of the prodigal son and the Samaritan felt. Since it is used only in this
context, there must be a reason.
Has splanchnizomai ever trumped your naturally
selfish action towards friend and opponent?
When you open your eyes wide and step into your Galilee, you will find outstretched hands, crying children, hungry hearts and oppressed people everywhere. It is hard work for Christians who are not as strong as Jesus was. It is hard to stand alone trying to help people in need and see others walk by unaware of or ignoring the pathos of the life around them. Splanchnizomai leads to burn out without helping congregants to support you.
I suggest that we all should keep that word in front of us so it guides our
actions always. Then, perhaps our congregations will more closely model the
example of the first days of the Church.
We should search for circumstances that create that feeling of deep compassion. It is the way we write the resolution of the gospel story. We
cannot do it by proxy, such as walking in protest lines or carrying signs, preaching cute and entertaining sermons on Sunday morning, buying our pastor a jet or watching televangelists. We can only do it by living among God’s suffering
children with eyes, ears and pockets wide open, living the gospel.
Pray that we do not become blind and deaf guides but only compassionate
servants with great grace upon us all.
Amen.
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