I have a reputation for being somewhat cynical, especially about the church.

Having friends who sleep behind the dumpster in a parking lot of a church that is spending millions on a building expansion will do that to you.

Or when you meet with the head of an international “Christian” non-profit and he tells you the reason they are focusing on international poverty rather than domestic poverty is because it is much easier to raise money for international poverty, especially if there are kids involved. It makes me even more cynical to recognize that he is right – it is easier. Much easier.

Or the wealthy Christian who can’t help you financially, but he will pray for you. As he gets ready to go on the fourth vacation of the year.

Or the Men’s group that wants a missions “project”, something they can do two times a year, like pass lunches out in the park to the homeless. You know, like Jesus did.

The problem for me is that I identify with the church people – that is where I came from. And we are hardest on the people we identify with the most. These people are in my mission field too.  Just as my friends who have no homes need to know what it means to be loved, my friends who live in houses need to know what it means to love someone who does not have the ability to love you back in the same way. Loving people who cannot love you back allows us to begin to understand Grace.

Being a prophetic voice without being a jerk is something I struggle with. (I can hear the chorus of Amen’s from here…)

Jesus loves everybody, but he wants to do it through us. And as hard as it is for me sometimes, I have to understand that means arrogant wealthy church people too. Keep praying for me -  and us -  would you?

Note:This post is part of our Online Social Justice Bible Study (click the link to see all the entries so far).

The spirit of the Lord God is upon me, because the Lord has anointed me; he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed, to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn; (Isaiah 61:1-2)

The Messiah will:

• Bring good news to the oppressed
• Bind the brokenhearted
• Proclaim liberty and release to those in bondage
• Announce Jubilee (release from debt)
• Announce the vengeance of God
• comfort those who mourn

Perhaps you are more used to seeing this passage in another book of the Bible. That is because Jesus read from this passage when he stood up in that synagogue in Nazareth and read from the scroll.  Taking this passage in that context, it is interesting to notice that he said nothing about forgiving sins as a big part of his message, yet that is all we seem to have taken away from it. Here is Jesus chance to say what he is all about and, rather than talk about Hell, or abortion, or homosexuality or any of that, he instead decides to talk about things like good news to those left behind. He talks about soothing those with broken hearts. Providing relief to those who are in overwhelming debt. Liberty to those who are in bondage.

I wish we would talk more about that Jesus, instead of the one we have made up to justify what we want Jesus to be about. I do not think the Jesus we like to talk about has any good news for the poor.

Photo Credit: One

In the churches and faith groups that I talk to I find there is a real hunger among people to live the Way of Jesus, not just belong to a church or acknowledge a creed. These people want to live for Jesus–not just on Sunday, but everyday. They feel that the message of Jesus was that of not intellectual agreement with a set of propositions, but that of a way, of a lifestyle. And the sad thing is, they see no way to do that. The church they go to does not teach them how to do that. The pastor or worship leader does not talk about how to do that, or if he does, they suspect he is being less than honest, because they do not see it in his (or, much less frequently, her) life.

These people have no idea whether they are Emergent, Post-Modern, Modern, Evangelical, Democrat or Virgo. They just know that they find the message of Jesus attractive, that he probably meant what he said about the Kingdom of God and loving your neighbor and they desire to experience the knowledge and presence of God in the same way Jesus did.

I have coffee 2-3 times a week with someone who tells me they have questions about their faith, that they just cannot “buy” what the church is pushing any more. They tell me that they find contradictions between the infighting they see among church people and the teachings of Jesus. Many tell me that they no longer care to be called Christian because they have no desire to be associated with the term… but they love Jesus.

They are convinced that Jesus was about more than creeds, more than six verses and a prayer, more than an hour and a half on Sunday.They want to live deeply, to feel what Jesus felt, to love God and love people. But they feel they can no longer, in good conscience, ‘do’ church. Heck, some of them are not even certain that Jesus was God.

So, what do I tell these people?

First, I sympathize, for I am one of them. One day, I realized I just could no longer ignore Jesus and his message of radical discipleship. And if there is one thing I have learned about following Jesus, it is that it will cost you; friendships, economically, time, opportunities. You really don’t think of it that way, any more than marrying this girl will mean you cannot go out with any other girls. It is true, but you don’t count that as a burden. If you do, you may want to re-examine your relationship.

The next thing I tell them is that if they feel they have to choose between belief and action, to choose action. After all, we are told that if we feed the hungry, visit prisoners and shelter the homeless, we encounter the living Jesus himself. And I am just crazy enough to believe that if you spend that much time in the presence of Jesus, it will change you. I have said it before, but loving people is prayer.

I also tell them that the church has many bad qualities, but if Jesus was serious about loving our neighbor, than that also means Sister Bertha-better-than-you on the front row of church. If Jesus was serious about salt and yeast and mustard seeds, then we probably need to be there, right in the middle, getting busy salting and leavening and… mustarding? In any event, Jesus loved the church, and thought it was worth dying for, so it is probably worth our fighting for.

The last thing I would tell them is that I have no idea for ‘certain’ that the creeds are right or that Jesus was God. In other words, I cannot prove it, but that they probably should not spend a lot of time freaking out about that.  The author of Hebrews tells us that faith is being certain of what we hope for, so we truly are people of faith, for every one of these people hope, more than anything, that God is a lot like the Jesus we see in the Gospels.  And should he not be, we probably would not want much to do with him anyway.

I was explaining to a friend tonight that I think often we Christians miss the boat by limiting the mission of Jesus to “making sure we go to heaven when we die”.

I grow weary of everyone’s battles over Orthodoxy, so I have no desire to add fuel to that fire here, now.  I wish Orthopraxy was as large a concern.

I do find it interesting that when Jesus announced his purpose at the beginning of his public ministry, it is not concerned with Heaven and Hell, but rather about helping a hurting people and a loving God.

The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.”  The Gospel According to Luke: Chapter 4

One thing (I just cannot resist): For those of you convinced you know what the Gospel is, read Luke 20:1.