It took more years than I’d care to admit to come to the realization that life isn’t really all about me; and then a few more past that point to see that the harder I consciously tried to gain my life, the more I unconsciously lost it. Though it seemed counterintuitive the first few hundred times I heard it, I eventually came to understand the freedom that comes with surrendering the seat of honor to someone else, and considering others before myself. Not that I’ve by any means mastered this sacrificial way of living, but we’ve definitely become more outwardly focused in recent years. That has included simple things, like feeding someone who is hungry, or lending a helping hand; and at times it’s entailed more complex and difficult things, like reaching out to people who are literally dangling from the ledge.
As we’ve walked down this road, we’ve discovered more than a few unpleasant realities. To be sure, caring for people is a messy business, and God’s economy is much different than our own. He is more than willing to allow some havoc to go on in our temporal realm in order to propel us toward His eternal goals for us. And change (even positive change) is a challenging and often painful process. Many times, it’s the people you’re trying to help who fight you the hardest. No doubt, Jesus can relate to this; as the very ones He came to rescue decided to lynch Him. Indeed, He warned His disciples that many in the world hated Him, and that many would hate them as well. Similarly, Paul said that we would be the “Aroma of Christ”, which would smell like life to some, and death to others.
Our experiences have also caused us to come to a new understanding of the word “success”. Because if success means that everyone gets saved, everyone gets healed, everyone gets delivered, everyone gets reconciled… then we’d have given up long ago. The scripture tells us that we can plant seeds and we can water seeds, but that only God can bring the increase; so ultimately the results belong to Him. All that we can do is play the role that He gives us. We have helped people to get free from an abusive relationship, only to watch them willingly return to it. We’ve seen people receive miracles, only to trade their gift for self-destruction, and we’ve watched people ascend from the ashes of their past, only to tunnel their way back into the prison of addiction. And every time something like this happens your heart breaks again, which is doubtlessly an appropriate reflection of what our Heavenly Father feels. He doesn’t take away His children’s freewill and He doesn’t give us that option either.
Additionally, we’ve found that helping people doesn’t necessarily breed gratitude or praise. More often, it stirs up contention. Jesus spoke of healing ten lepers, pointing out that only one of those returned to thank Him, and when the Pharisees heard he’d healed on the Sabbath, they accused Him of violating the law. I can’t help but feel that these stories are somewhat prophetic for those who choose to reach out to others. Like trying to feed a duck in the park, or a gull at the beach, you normally just wind up with a bunch of angry birds flying at your head. We recently became aware of a need, and reached out to a family within our community. Through the generosity of our friends and family, this particular need was met. But instead of being perceived as the blessing that it was, it has stirred animosity amongst those who feel as though they should have received the same sort of gift. Ultimately, we were criticized for not doing more for the other families who may also have a need. And every time something like this happens, there is a temptation to say, “I’m never doing this kind of thing again!” But like most temptations, that is an urge we need to battle.
The scripture is full of directives toward reaching out to others. It is better to give than to receive; whatever you do for the least of these, you do for Me; the religion that God accepts as pure and faultless is caring for widows and orphans; love your neighbor as yourself; the only thing that counts is faith, expressing itself as love; if a man asks for your cloak, offer him your tunic as well; the parable of the Good Samaritan… We cannot allow the adversity that comes with the mission to keep us from answering the call. We have to abandon our western ideas about what it means to be “victorious” and learn how to reflect our Father’s heart to a lost and dying world. His heart is patient, and kind, and merciful, and long suffering, and forgiving, and generous. We can neither become weary in well-doing, nor wary of it.
An Issue of Blood
Posted in Commentaries, Opinions, tagged church in America, cultural relavence, spiritual gimmicks, woman with issue of blood on April 4, 2016| Leave a Comment »
Several years ago I heard a sermon about the woman with the issue of blood (Mark 5:25-34), called “When Faith Meets Desperation”. Within that teaching, the speaker pointed out the necessity of having both the faith to believe, and the strong motivation to act on that faith. While none of us would want to say that we must be desperate before we’ll act in faith, I do believe it is accurate to say that our natural tendency is to be far more responsive to what is seen than to what is unseen; which generally relegates “acting in faith” into the same category as a last resort.
This would seem to have been the plight of the woman in the story. She had suffered for twelve years, and in Mark’s gospel we hear that she had been under the care of many doctors, spending all that she had, and yet she was only getting worse. In Luke’s gospel it says, “No one could heal her”. While her faith in Jesus was ultimately a credit to her, it only came to fruition after all of the other options were exhausted.
On numerous occasions over the years the Lord has held this woman up to me as an example of the church in America. At one time her body had been strong, healthy, attractive… She used to be an active member of the culture, but then the bleeding started. Under the Jewish law, she was now perpetually “unclean”, which made her a type of outcast. While she was still around, her relationship with, and her influence within, the community was greatly diminished.
Such is the church in America. At our nation’s inception, it had embraced Christian principle as part of its foundation, and for the first 150 years it remained an accepted part of the culture. But then the bleeding started; spotty at first, but soon developing into a hemorrhage. With each successive generation, the percentage of people affiliating with “Christian” churches diminishes; and its influence within the culture deteriorates. While she was once revered and seen as essential, she is now viewed as irrelevant, and in many cases is held in contempt. Like the woman in the story, the church continues to exhaust itself, and its resources, to find its way back into the mainstream of society.
It’s hard to imagine what the “care of many doctors” might have consisted of back in biblical times, but those treatments may not have been any stranger or less effective than some of the things the church in America has attempted to regain its place in the culture. In just about any Christian bookstore you’ll find a wall full of volumes filled with methodologies, formulas and/or spiritual sounding gimmicks to unlock the store houses of heaven. Whether it is taking some obscure piece of scripture and building a doctrine out of it, or trying to use some legitimate principle of scripture as a token in God’s vending machine of blessing; it seems that there is an endless stream of ideas about how we as Christians might access the abundant life that Jesus died to give us.
All of this teaching might seem more virtuous if the scripture wasn’t already filled with direction on how to live; and if we in the church were already implementing those things in our walk. Unfortunately ideas like repentance, holiness, humility, prayer, fasting, sacrifice, dying to self, service… aren’t selling many books, or filling many seats, these days. Like people who want to lose weight, but who aren’t willing to sacrifice their favorite foods or to exercise, we’ll try any pill that claims to work and ignore the basic principles of how the body is designed to operate. Of course God will not be mocked and He’s looking at what’s in our hearts. His word says that He is faithful to reward those who diligently seek “Him” and not necessarily those who simply seek His manifest blessings.
Eventually the woman in this story had tried everything that was available and all that was left was Jesus. He had become her only hope. Who’s to say that if some new “doctor”, with some new claim for a cure, had showed up that she wouldn’t have been pulled away? But in that critical moment Jesus was the only answer that was left.
I wonder what it will take for the church in America to get to that place. Will there be a point when we grasp that if we don’t humble ourselves, turn from our wicked ways and seek His face, before we pray that it won’t matter who we vote into office or who is on the Supreme Court. Will there be a time when we recognize that the temple has become more a place of commerce than a house of prayer, and remember how Jesus responded to that the first time around. Will there be a moment when we figure out that we can accomplish many things in Jesus’ name, but that if we’re not truly in relationship with Him, it won’t matter. This woman’s healing hinged on her ability to fight through the crowded marketplace to get to Jesus; I’d suggest that the same is true for His church today.
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