This week’s Catalyst study really raised some issues within my heart about the church and its role (or lack of role) in the progression of social justice, both internationally and domestically here in the United States. Every Sunday morning we congregate in a lavish building geared toward our personal comfort, and we dress in our finest apparel believe that somehow a sport coat and a perfect crease in our slacks is the way to honor God.
Are we so blinded by the masquerade of (c)hurch that we are losing sight of what it means to be the (C)hurch?
James 1:27 - Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.
Psalm 72: 12-14 - For he will rescue the poor who cry out and the afflicted who have no helper. He will have pity on the poor and helpless and save the lives of the poor. He will redeem them from oppression and violence, for their lives are precious in his sight.
Luke 4: 18-19 – “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.”
Does my life give hope to the hopeless? Does anything I do work toward releasing the oppressed, preaching good news to the poor, redeeming the helpless from oppression and violence?
Why do we tolerate injustice?
Edmund Burke puts it best by saying, “All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”
The opposite of love is not hatred, but apathy toward each other. I’m ashamed when I hear stories of homeless people coming to my (c)hurch and sitting all by themselves, receiving nary a touch or a handshake from anyone in the congregation. Sure, he may have a bit of an odor to us, but the stench of our apathy is all the more putrid and rank to the nostrils of God.
I pray that God would give us a truly passionate spirit to preach good news to the poor and the downtrodden, care for the widow, adopt the orphan as our own, and embrace a homeless man’s body odor as the fragrance of life.
What can we do to purge ourselves of this apathy?
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1 comment:
Wow, Joe. You really nailed that one. I am struggling with the same thing right now. Are we willing to give up our comforts to love on the less fortunate? I don't know the answer to that. I think the "Christian" thing to do would be to say "of course." But, really...are we? My prayer is that God searches my heart and finds that I am. Because it is our instructed duty to LOVE. The bible doesn't say to love only those who can afford to love you back - lavishly...but we are to love. That's it...just love. We are to bear witness to social injustice. That doesn't mean to just take notice of it, it means to acknowledge it and do something!
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