It may be a strange coincidence, but I found a quotation of Rich Mullins taken from a concert only a short time before his death in 1999. For those who don’t know, Rich has been a formative influence on my faith and my worldview. He was on a wonderful journey, and it was something I wanted for myself.
Jesus said whatever you do to the least of these my brothers you’ve done it to me. And this is what I’ve come to think. That if I want to identify fully with Jesus Christ, who I claim to be my savior and Lord, the best way that I can do that is to identify with the poor. This I know will go against the teachings of all the popular evangelical preachers. But they’re just wrong. They’re not bad, they’re just wrong. Christianity is not about building an absolutely secure little niche in the world where you can live with your perfect little wife and your perfect little children in a beautiful little house where you have no gays or minority groups anywhere near you. Christianity is about learning to love like Jesus loved and Jesus loved the poor and Jesus loved the broken.I didn’t go searching for this quotation. Believe what you want, but I believe God caused me to come across this. It’s starting to bring a lot of my last few years into focus. Depending on what God has called them to, people who commit to following him will voluntarily place themselves in positions where they love the poor, and they love the broken. Some who would not choose this for themselves—people like me—have it thrust upon them. I do not believe that God would take away all of our possessions. Yet, what has God called us to? He has called us most importantly to love him and to love each other as we love ourselves. It’s difficult to profess to love someone without identifying with them.
In 1987, I spent another week of summer vacation at a small Christian camp outside of Denver. I had just come out of a school where I was not exactly the most popular. I had come with the desire to make a fresh start and enjoy my time there. You wouldn’t believe it, but it happened. I had a great time. People were looking to me as one of the more popular kids. It was intoxicating, really. It was actually my first test of power, so to speak. I was being myself and I was having a great time. Friday morning rolled around and before we all went off to activities, I was cornered by three girls. They asked me if I knew Audrey from their cabin. When I wasn’t sure, they said that she was the one with the artificial arm. Instantly, I knew her. She was one I noticed often in the cafeteria. I had contemplated how much harder everything would be at camp if I had the same handicap. I wondered how often she got teased. When I nodded, they told me quite bluntly that she liked me and wanted to go with me to the Friday night formal, but she was too afraid I’d reject her.
I knew how things worked, that my popularity could be ruined by being seen with her at the formal. The shoe was now on the other foot. Would I return the cruelty I had learned from so many years of living on the outside? I couldn’t do that to her. I knew her experiences in form, if not the specifics. I told them I would think about it, but I already knew my decision. That evening, while we walked under the stars, I put my arm around her, knowing that I had done some good by giving her an evening with a simple wish fulfilled. If anything, I knew that she would have one experience that wouldn’t pull her into the dark hole of rejection that I had known for years. I can’t claim that I romantically loved her, but I took some steps in her world and sacrificed whatever prestige I had to let her know that she was just as worthwhile as I was.
What I did was love her enough to care about her heart. God raised me from inferiority to superiority for that week just to let me bless His beautiful, worthy daughter. It wasn’t me, though. Jesus was walking with her under the stars. He’s the one that changed me enough to have compassion with those who have been cast aside and left alone. If I had never felt rejection, my heart would likely have been indifferent to her. Jesus loved the poor and the broken because he knew people’s hearts and the pain they felt at each rejection. He had compassion. Through His working in my heart and through His loving me, I was able to love her in the way we’re supposed to love each other. It shouldn’t be unusual for people to do this, but it is.
“Love one another as I have loved you.”
3 comments:
I think what you said was great, but if you actually knew Jerry Falwell you would have a different view. I grew up in his church left went to Bible college in NC and am very faithful in my church. Alot of what I learned came from that man. I dont hate homosexuals I pray for them daily. But God hates their sin and the Bible says that. Jerry took a stand on what he believed God was telling him and that is not wrong. I dont think he will have to answer for preaching Christ. Look at what he did for pregnant women, making a home for them and giving them help with their babies. Or the other homes for the homeless. He also started a love won out house, where gays could go and realize the wrong. Yes God loves us all, but he also told us to make a choice him or the world. Homosexuals are choosing the world. You cant be saved and be a homosexual. It just cant happen.
Janet,
I think you might be responding to criticisms I have never addressed to Falwell. In fact, I never cited any specific issues I had with him other than the quote of Rich Mullins, which I might have forgotten to mark properly.
I agree that we can't compromise the integrity of our faith to fit someone's agenda. We will all answer to God for what we've done here on earth, and He's the only one we need to really worry about.
My point is that there are Christians who are very insular in their faith. If you want to get into specifics, I will say that you are right in that Falwell did change his approach in recent years and do a lot of important work towards these aims. However, I also know that he came from a segregationalist church. Segregationalists think that Christianity is all about quashing things that make them uncomfortable and building their own utopia. They fail to see people with the eyes of Jesus and they can't reach out to love them effectively. Jesus never endorsed sin, but, like a doctor, he helped those who were sick and hurting. We need God's love and power to get free of the insular beliefs, and we need to be be willing to let God use us wherever he may lead.
I'm not here to attack any one person. I'm not a Christian hit man. I am here to say that we need to allow God to change our hearts and help us move beyond our comfort zones and into the work that he has prepared for us. I used the occasion of Falwell's death to remind us of what's truly important.
In any community whether it be Christian, Liberal, or whatever, there is a normative ability to not have to defend oneself if they like somebody; woe betide them if they dislike somebody, especially without a specific reason that will qulech the fire of the ensuing deposition. Or, I just didn't like the guy, and I really shouldn't have to defend that any more than if I liked him.
There are plenty of couples that look at each other and perform the ritual task of saying "I love you", but how many of them, after any amount of time together, after playing the entrapment game, and then finally getting married, can actually look their spouse in the eyes and say " I like you". One has to love himself even before he can love even a spouse, but how many don't realize that the same is true of liking someone else. One really cant like another unless first he likes himself. So I would say the largest form of human hypocrisy would be to reprimand someone who doesn't want to defend a stance of "I just don't like somebody", when even in the Christian community, most can't even say they like their spouse. On the other side of that coin is the fact then that there are plenty of people that have proven that you can love someone and not like them. Jesus said " Love your neighbor as yourself," but that doesn't necessarily mean that I have to go out of my way to create a relationship of like.
I won't even get into what I think of the American version of what people think Christianity is, and what I believe it to really be. As far as I''m concerned, most of us don't have the right to use the word. Or we could just keep changing the definition. I think part of really knowing God is knowing how to be angry and love somebody at the same time. i.e. the whole Israelite plight through the Old Testament. All of this just to say I'm in agreement with you.
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