Fact: There are
over 2000 verses in the Bible that talk about poverty and justice.
Fact: The Bible
calls Christians to a life of love and justice. This isn't justice the way
America's forefathers defined it, and this is not the Hollywood version of
love. It's antithetical to our most basic of instincts. Here's a
snapshot:
Micah 6:8 He has
told you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require
of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and
to walk humbly with your God?
Mark 12:31 The second is this: ‘You shall love
your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than
these.
Matthew 5:42-44 Give to the one who begs from you, and do not refuse the one who
would borrow from you. “You
have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your
enemy.’ But I
say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you...
Fact: If you
call yourself a Christian, this world is not your home.
Phillipians 3:20 But our citizenship
is in heaven, and from it we await a Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ...
Fact:
Our mission as Christians is to show God's Kingdom on earth.
Matthew 6:10 Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in
heaven.
Fact:
I am angry. I am discouraged, disillusioned, and disheartened.
These
are the facts, and I feel compelled to share them because too many Christians
have forgotten them.
I
have seen countless people who call themselves followers of Christ show a lack
of compassion so great that I know God must be grieving. My heart grieves with
His. And I, a generally optimistic person, am experiencing a cynicism I did not
know I was capable of containing.
Over
the past two weeks, I have considered not having children. Moving to another
country sounded increasingly appealing. I wanted to remove myself from the
situation.
But
Jesus.
Jesus
did not remove himself. In fact, he moved closer. He ate with sinners. He asked
them questions. He called out people who were doing it wrong.
What
we need is the voice of Jesus.
Pause
for a moment. Log out of Twitter. Stop posting Facebook comments, and read the
Gospels.
Observe
how Jesus treated those who were different than him. (Hint: It was not by
discrediting their concerns.) See how he sought them out. I look at Jesus'
interactions and see a man who "left people better than he found
them", even when he was rebuking them.
And
then I look at the hate, or worse, apathy, being spewed by members church
and I am angry. I would venture to say that it is a righteous anger.
Here's
a final fact for you.
Fact:
If you are not loving your neighbor, your friend, your enemy, that person of
another race, that person you disagree with, you are doing it wrong. If
you are not praying for and seeking racial reconciliation in this country and
in your own life, you are doing it wrong. If you are calling
people, who are made in God's image, animals or any number of dehumanizing
phrases, you are doing it wrong. If you are more concerned
with discrediting the the opinions and feelings of another person than with
loving them as yourself, you are doing it wrong. If you are
not concerned about the plight of the oppressed, the poor, and the
marginalized, you are doing it wrong.
Those are biblical truths.
This is not
about black or white. This is not about whether or not there should have been indictments in the two recent cases. This is about the fact that we live in a fallen world. This is about the fact that we as Christians are reacting to this brokenness in a way that is indistinguishable from non-Christians. We need to do better. To whom much is given,
much is required, and we've been given so much as Americans.
I'm
gonna let my man James close this one out:
James
2:14-20 (The Message)
Dear
friends, do you think you’ll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right
words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a
person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags
and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be
filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat
or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk
without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?
I can
already hear one of you agreeing by saying, “Sounds good. You take care of the
faith department, I’ll handle the works department.”
Not so fast. You
can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my
faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand
in glove.
Do I
hear you professing to believe in the one and only God, but then observe you
complacently sitting back as if you had done something wonderful? That’s just
great. Demons do that, but what good does it do them? Use your heads! Do you
suppose for a minute that you can cut faith and works in two and not end up
with a corpse on your hands?
Seek justice,
Taylor
