While we wait I wanted to share with you a bit of what I am processing in this season of my life. I am re-reading the book "The Hole in our Gospel" by Richard Stearns. If you have not read this book- please get a copy today and read it. As I read it a second time I am more convinced and convicted regarding our call as believers to live more radical, compassionate, and justice focused lives.
The book this week references Ezekiel 16:49:
"Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed, and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy."
Most of you reading this have some ideas that come to mind when we hear of the ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. It has been taught in churches and referenced in culture. Most of us think of grievous sexual sin, and while that is true, read again what God says is the sin of that wicked nation. They were arrogant, overfed, and unconcerned. They did not help the poor and needy. A city known for it's wickedness and the destruction that came as a result is a city that is arrogant, overfed, and unconcerned, and they did not care for the poor or needy.
As I read these words thousands of years later I am haunted by the truth they speak of the very country I call my own. But more than speak to this country, I tremble at how truthfully they speak of the Church in America. Us. We- who call ourselves followers of Jesus. Me.
The "Hole in the Gospel" argues that the Church in America has reduced the Gospel- the Good News of Jesus Christ- to a sort of "fire insurance". We have taken this message with words only. We have taken it to people with eternity only in mind while ignoring (or at least disregarding) their current state of suffering and despair. We have failed to live the "Whole" Gospel as Jesus did. Proclaiming a truth that has the power to redeem this entire world order. This "Whole Gospel" has always been meant to save people for eternity and redeem their circumstances right here and now. Jesus' life on earth demonstrates this with every healing, with every move of justice, and with the compassion he demonstrated for hurting people.
I believe the church has (along with reducing the Gospel to "fire insurance") become complacent and has increasingly believed the lies of this world and subtly and slowly started to blur the lines between people of faith and the world surrounding us. We have been numbed to the pain of the world and told lies concerning our responsibility in it. Generations have been brought up believing the lies of the American Dream. And generations of church-going people have been told that this is also for them. Generations of church-going people have been taught politics and religion as if they are one in the same, as if America and it's values and concerns are and should be the primary concerns of the people of God.
"The first Reformation..... was about creeds; this one's going to be about deeds."
~ Rick Warren
As I read this book for the second time I am more convinced that God is calling his people to repentance and action. The words of the prophet Ezekiel should cut to our hearts. Arrogant. Overfed. Unconcerned.
Arrogant.
Overfed.
Unconcerned.
Church- we need to repent. We need to ask God to show us our arrogance, our indulgence, and our lack of concern. We need to ask for mercy and forgiveness and we need to ask him to begin to break our hearts with the things that break his.
I am no longer content to go about life acting as if the world isn't hurting. As if I can't do something. As if my petty discomforts take precedent over the lost, hurting, and dying in this world. What Jesus calls us to is radical. Following him means sacrifice, compassion, justice, and surrender.
I have recently been led to learn more about a country in Africa called the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It is a dark and horribly violent country. People are being killed, raped, and tortured by a number of rebel groups from within their own country and from surrounding countries. 6 million people have been violently slaughtered since 1996. Countless more women and children raped and abused. The US government has known and effectively done nothing. The UN has known and done nothing. The world knows now and is doing nothing. I watched a 26 minute video yesterday detailing the DRC's situation. It was very difficult to watch. I wanted to turn it off continuously through the 26 minutes. I wanted to walk away and pretend I had never seen it. But then I remembered that real people are living this horror right now. Real parents watch (or have watched) their children murdered in front of them. Real children have watched their mothers raped in front of them. Real families live in fear of this right now. I had to sit in air conditioned safe home and watch 26 minutes of the lives of other people- real people.
And I was broken. It was far from comfortable. But I had asked God to begin to break my heart with the things that break his. I had asked him to break my complacency. And he is doing that.
Because I believe that God is compassionate, he is just, and he loves deeply every soul suffering in the hell of the DRC. I believe in the room lined with orphan babies- silent because they have learned in the first months of their life that crying gains nothing- he is there. His heart aches. I believe he sees the injustice and hears the cries of his people. And I also believe he has purposed and called his people to be his hands and feet. He has called us to:
"Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless; maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed. Rescue the weak and the needy; deliver them from the hand of the wicked."
Psalm 82:3,4
As the 26 minutes came to a close I felt overwhelmed. What could I possibly do in the face of such widespread violence in a country across the world? I am still (and will continue) to seek answers to that question. I do believe that each of us can do something.
The DRC is one example of suffering and pain in this world. One place where the Gospel of hope can bring life and power and can turn upside down the current order of things. But the world is full of this need. It is full of pain, suffering, and injustice.
I believe that the church in America (with all of it's resources and influence) can be and must be a part of God redeeming work in this world. I believe God is calling the church to a reformation. But this reformation must begin with individual followers of Jesus.
Each of us must ask God to "break our hearts with the things that break his."
And then ask him "What are you calling me to?"
Here is the video I watched yesterday. This video is not for children as it describes extreme violence and shows the devastating effects of it.
