Reflections on a familiar passage


I sent an email to several individuals at various levels of leadership in my church, from volunteer teachers to a few of the staff. I've gotten some very valuable feedback, and so I thought I'd post the core of the email here, edited to remove names. I'm looking forward to the discussion, provided I can make the teacher's meeting coming up. On to the email:

The discussion below has three parts:
1. an illustration from my experiences the past few months
2. a Bible passage I've been drawn to repeatedly over the past few years
3. a personal confession and, by consequence, a possible direction.

1 Illustration
Ever since I got sick in February we've received numerous offers for help: people who want to bring meals, mow the lawn, whatever.  Because our kids are both in college, and because of other reasons, donated meals are not a need and, often, can be more of a nuisance.  One family member is diabetic, and while on chemo I am sensitive to certain spices and smells, and neither of us grew up with "southern cooking" that doesn't fit well with either of us.  That is, these particular offers of service do not achieve any meaningful goal, at least in our case.  Even so, some people are very insistent that meals are something that they are going to deliver, regardless.

We've learned to translate these sincere offers of help as expressions of love.  In difficult and awkward situations like this, people just don't know what to do - and that includes me on the receiving end.  In the context of our leadership/church direction, the point of the illustration is that sincerity and desire do not necessarily lead to a correct decision.  We need to take action that meaningfully engages the true needs, not our own preconceptions, however well intentioned we may be.

2 Bible passage
In Baptist culture we regularly quote from the end of Mt 9 where Jesus commands that we pray for the Lord of the harvest to send out workers.  I tend to place more emphasis on Jesus' own response to the need, recorded in the early parts of Mt 10: he called the 12 disciples and said

As you go, preach, saying "The kingdom of heaven is at hand.  Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse lepers, cast out demons.  You received without paying; give without pay."

I've taught  two concepts in this passage to kids in youth:
(1) That if I gave that as a homework assignment, they'd think I was nuts.  Nevertheless, Jesus DID give that homework assignment, and the disciples all got A's (Luke 10).
(2) Of the five commands (preach, heal, raise, cleanse, cast out), only one involves explicit proclamation.   The other four involve service to our community in complete dependence on the work of the Holy Spirit.

In terms of the illustration above: the spiritual need - the gospel - was accompanied by active intervention in physical needs that we may often ignore "in light of eternity."  This, in turn, leads to my own self-evaluation.

3 personal confession/direction
The four "community" commands of Mt 10 carry with them the implication that I have to spend time around people that, frankly, I don't want to be around: 
1. sick people - with stinky sores, bad attitudes (like mine), and more awkward moments than you can get anywhere else, etc.
2. dead people.  I'll skip that one.  My western/scientific mindset scratches to a halt.
3. lepers - or, let's just say, infectious people who pose a personal risk to me.  Who wants that?
4. demonized people.  Violent, angry, unpredictable, annoying, and in desperate need of love, though they can offer little or none in return.

I don't want to be around any of them;.  Yet, the places where I see Christ working with greater impact are among the people that it costs me to be around.  It's not that I don't like being around them, because in fact I do. It's just that it's also very hard: I have no idea how to help or what to do.  This, in tandem with the Mt  10 passage, tells me that, while our gospel is one of grace, its proclamation and expansion apparently bears a greater cost than I have been willing to face.

It is my hope that when I get out of this crucible that has come my way I shall have a different level of patience, tolerance for discomfort and awkwardness, a greater commitment to service on my job, in my family, and in my community, and a vastly greater understanding of dependence on the Holy Spirit.  I'm not sure what the above passage would look like in Auburn in the new millenium.  I suspect the different  Christian traditions and cultures in our area would give vastly different answers.  To build on the illustration above, my concern for myself and then for our church is that our answers will come from those traditions and our preconceptions of "the right thing to do," rather than from reality as reflected in the leadership of the Holy Spirit.

For me, in the moment, I need to go back to the command above: proclaim and serve, in explicit dependence on the Holy Spirit.  Maybe I can also work to be more willing to put up with gunk so that someone else can benefit.  We'll see.

Posted: Thu - June 26, 2008 at 08:32 PM           | |

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