01/22/2012 WHAT IF … WE GAVE UP OUR EXCUSES?

WHAT IF …

                … WE GAVE UP OUR EXCUSES?

            Jesus really did make it easy.  He took 4000 years of Jewish history &  volumes of Jewish law & boiled it all down to two rules:  love God & love others (Mark 12:29-31).  In fairness, persons knew who God was, but wondered who was included in the “others.” 

“Everyone!” Jesus taught. “Everyone, & especially persons in need.  At the last judgment, both the prophets & I agree,” he continued, “extend your love to the needy (Matthew 25: 31-46).”

            “Well, how do we love God & others?” persons then inquired. 

            “Love God through worship (Exodus 20:1-11).  That’s what my Father instructed,” Jesus responded, “but also love God by loving others.  Whatever you do to the least of these, you do to God (Matthew 25:40).”

            It seemed simple enough  Evidently, it wasn’t.  Persons had all sorts of excuses to not follow Jesus & his example. 

Our gospel lesson is typical.  One person who pledged to follow Jesus wherever he went, backed out when he learned about the spartan travel accomodations.  It was probably for the best, since one place to which Jesus would travel was Calvary.  One definitely wouldn’t want to accompany Jesus there, as most of his own disciples demonstrated.  

A second man seemed genuinely excited, too, but rather than ask a trusted friend or family member to arrange for his father’s burial, he insisted on doing it himself.  He gave up a life with Jesus, instead of entrus-ting the task to a responsible individual.  If he couldn’t give up that little bit of control, he’d never be able to hand his life over to God’s will. 

A third individual who wanted to be a part of Jesus’ band put the rules of etiquette above what was most necessary.  Niceties are nice, but politeness cannot replace genuine need.  With three decades in the fire service I don’t know of once instance where we went to the homeowner whose house was ablaze & asked, “May we go in & put out your fire, please?”!  Often, something so simple – loving God & others – didn’t meet with a lot of success.

Even today, we have our justifications, rationalizations, & excuses.  Richard Stearns, the CEO of World Vision & author of The Hole in Our Gospel, knows what those excuses are.  He employed an entire cottage industry of excuses to help him avoid serving God by serving persons in need.  ---He claimed that he wasn’t qualified.  He wasn’t knowledgeable enough.  It would be career suicide.  There was his dream house to consider, as well as his precious Jaguar XK-8, & the five kids’ private Christian school.[1]

            Mr. Stearns became acquainted with others’ excuses, too.  Much like the persons Jesus encountered in our gospel lesson, Mr. Stearns’ acquaintances also wanted to join him in his work, initially.  When they learned what was necessary to serve, however, a list of conditions invariably arose.  It would go something like this, & I paraphrase:

                        “Well, Rich, we’re very committed to staying in the ______

area.  All of our friends are here, & we have spent years getting

our house just right.  Our kids are in a very good school district

& involved in a lot of activities.  We don’t want to move them. 

Plus, we waited six years to join the _____ & now we’re finally

members.  We couldn’t take too big of a pay cut, either, & still

maintain our lifestyle.   Other than that, we’re wide open to serve.”[2]

We chuckle uncomfortably, seeing those excuses for what they are.  Then again, the only thing left are flimsy explanations like that.  The truly substantive reasons have been mitigated by civilization’s progress.

  There was a day when we lacked awareness.  We could honestly state that we didn’t know what needs existed around the world.  With 24-hour news cycles & daily communications from bloggers on the net, is there anything of substance occurring anywhere in the world that we can’t know about?  We can no longer claim with any credibility that we are unaware of poverty, injustice, violence, disease, corruption, & suffering in our community & around the globe.

There was a day when we lacked access & could honestly say, “I can’t get there.”  Travel to certain destinations was just out of the question.  Air travel has removed that impediment.  Other than a few locations here in the metro-Philly area that PennDOT has dug up, such that “You can’t get there from here!” the rest of the world is quite accessible.

We also cannot decry a lack of ability to address need.   We’re able to do things today that were unheard of a few decades ago.  Things we couldn’t imagine … done!  Thanks to a lot of you, & the pharmaceut-ical companies for which you work, we can no longer say, “There’s no cure for that disease.”  So many of humanity’s biggest killers have been, or are being, eradicated.  We have the means & technology to battle malaria, polio, tuberculosis, pneumonia, HIV/AIDS.  We can address prenatal & postnatal care, nutrition, vitamin deficiencies, tropical illnesses, parasites, & major childhood diseases.  We can provide dental care, safe drinking water, electric power, improve crop yields, secure micro-financing. 

We can no longer say that we’re unaware & didn’t know.  We can no longer claim that access is impossible.  We can no longer say that we don’t have the ability to address suffering & need.   We can’t make those excuses…

…Yet, every day 15,000 Africans die from AIDS, TB, & malaria – one of them.[3]  AIDS has created 12 million orphans in Africa.  Around the world, 26,000 children die each day from preventable causes that many of you have dedicated your careers to addressing.[4]  Why is your life work not getting to persons in need? 

If those examples are too far away….  Some children in all three North Penn middle schools will not get a free lunch, or any lunch, because their working poor parents earn too much to qualify for government assistance, & earn too little to afford to pack a healthy lunch & heat the house & pay the rent & put gas in the car to get to work, &….[5]  (Our UMWomen packing those after school snacks for the Boys & Girls Club is essential.)  And Manna on Main St., right here in affluent suburbia, during the last two years saw a 40% increase in services provided to persons who fall through the cracks.[6] 

Where is the church on these matters?  Where are you & I, personally, on these matters?  I understand that you cannot meet every need, but what need are you meeting?  Which need most tugs at you, most fits your skill set & spiritual gifts, most stretches you to rely on God’s grace, Christ’s redemption, the Spirit’s empowerment?  How will we, how will you, how will I plug the hole in our gospel?  How will we mend the tears & fix the breaks & turn around the problem?  If our lives have been transformed & turned around by Jesus Christ, then our lives in Christ can transform & turn around the needs that exist globally & locally.  We don’t keep this faith & its blessings to ourselves.

So, I ask you again this week, as I have since Christmas Eve:  Will you be deliberate about serving persons in need?  Will you partner with Christ, with me, & your siblings here at Christ Church in this new year of 2012? 

 I know it’s not always easy.  Bible scholars & theologians regularly refer to Jesus’ expectations as the “radical demands of discipleship,” a clarion call from Christ that is often “misunderstood.”[7]   What’s so radical about helping persons in need?  It may have been radical in Jesus’ day, but not anymore, is it!?!  What’s not to understand about loving God & others?  Can it be any simpler?  Even if we do say that attaining such a standard is difficult, is that reason enough to not try at all?

The Apostle St. Paul tells us that “Christ’s power is made perfect in our weakness” (I Cor. 2:9).  Perhaps our uncertainties & confessed inabilities are exactly what God wants & needs.  If we’re personally so morally good & supremely talented, then we really don’t need God, anyway.  We can do it on our own & take the credit ourselves.  So, then do it.  That’s not what God really intends, though, is it?

James teaches that faith requires deeds of faith.  Caring for the needy is a mark of true faith.  Excuses that refuse to help belie a false faith, an empty religion, being spiritually dead to Christ.  Think, again, about that man who wanted to bury his dead father.  It is those spiritually dead persons, like him today, who bury the physically dead by the tens of thous-ands every day because they don’t act with love as Jesus taught.  One’s actions, after all, reveal one’s attitude.[8]  Is that attitude the mind of Christ?

What if we gave up our excuses?  Imagine.

In the Name….            Copyright 2012 by G.D.Knerr at Lansdale, PA.  All rights reserved.

Recommended reading ---

The Hole in Our Gospel by Richard Stearns, 2009

            - this book is the basis for the sermon series; awe-inspiring, quick read

Those People by Tom Allebach & Victoria Solomon, 2011

-          locally-written stories that make real the need in our community; written by

the director & youth board member of Manna on Main Street (on sale at Manna for $10)

Un-Christian: What a New Generation Really Thinks About Christianity…& Why It

            Matters by David Kinnaman & Gabe Lyons, 2007

-          a secondary text used for the sermon series, as well as by Richard Stearns;

 engaging, disturbing research by America’s leading Christian pollster,

 George Barna

Radical:  Taking Back Your Faith from the American Dream by David Platt, 2010

            - the story of how one large, affluent, suburban church began serving the needy;

                        great, hope-filled reading, but a little too aggressive about evangelism

Deep Justice in a Broken World: Helping Your Kids Serve Others & Right the

            Wrongs Around Them by Chap Clark & Kara E. Powell, 2007

            - how to serve local & global needs with your children

Who Really Cares? America’s Charity Divide: Who Gives, Who Doesn’t, & Why It

            Matters by Arthur C. Brooks, 2006

-          for “numbers persons” curious about philanthropy in the U.S.; covers giving to

 churches, synagogues, mosques & other 501(c)3 charitable organizations