Mostly Harmless

GARDENDALE | Wed Jan 2, 2013 8:15am EST -- Several years ago in Gardendale, Alabama, a suburb of Birmingham, a group of people with similar interests began to meet in a community center they rented every other Saturday. The facility in an upper middle class section of town; an area where people took pride in their landscaping, had solid high-paying jobs, two and a half kids, etc.

There was nothing at all unusual about people meeting in the community center, but when word got out that the crowd was made up of parolees, convicted felons, and people who'd been accused of any number of crimes from petty theft to rape and arson, the community was none too happy, for obvious reasons.

Fairly soon it was discovered that the meetings were essentially seminars where attendees were given what amounted to step-by-step tutorials on topics like disarming alarm systems, offensive combat techniques, and weapons training. As this leaked out, the well-to-do neighborhoods nearby became paralyzed with fear. Sales of high-end security systems, video monitoring systems, and home window security bars nearly tripled in the first two months of the group's meetings.

Over time, however, the community residents were surprised that although there was an occasional burglary in the neighborhood or a petty theft at a nearby convenience store, the crime rate didn't actually rise. On top of that, the extra income generated by the facility rental allowed the community center to make improvements on its property, initially adding a baseball diamond and after a few years, a swimming pool. The leader of the group continued to make occasional appearances on local-access TV channels and in spite of being outspoken and having rather alarming commentary on some issues, his ideas never gained traction outside the group.

It wasn't very long before the group of people meeting in the community center came to be classified as "mostly harmless."

The above is a work of fiction; a parable submitted for your consideration. Has the Church become all bark and no bite? Are our meetings just informational seminars that rarely result in action or implementation? Do we expect to get by on our reputation or things we've done in the past? Are we really "mostly harmless"?

If we lived and practiced what Jesus taught and what we teach in our meetings, wouldn't we expect to see some crazy changes in our communities?

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Would Jesus Contribute?

I read an article at Yahoo! News today. In it President Obama was painted as being concerned that his campaign for re-election might be outspent by Mitt Romney's. The president noted, "And if things continue as they have so far, I'll be the first sitting president in modern history to be outspent in his re-election campaign." That would certainly be embarrassing.

The article also notes, "[President Obama's] campaign, the Democratic National Committee and their joint accounts reported more than $173 million cash on hand at the end of May, $61 million more than rival Mitt Romney and Republicans." At the end of May. A full month ago. At that time, according to the article, Obama's campaign claimed $173 million and Romney's apparently $112 million. That's $285 million that people and organizations have donated to have their favorite candidate elected or re-elected. That doesn't include third-party candidates' coffers.

Just for grins, I had a look at the website of Huntsville's Downtown Rescue Mission and saw this quote: "To feed everyone at the Downtown Rescue Mission for one year: approximately $385,000. 'He who is gracious to a poor man lends to the Lord, and He will repay him for his good deed.' - Proverbs 19:17."

Since I am an absolute math wizard, I popped up my calculator and quickly determined that presidential campaign funds raised so far could pay for about 740 years' worth of meals at our local Rescue Mission.

But who cares? We certainly have more pressing concerns than this.

For more laughs, I went to The Water Project's website to see how their donations were coming along. In Africa or India, each shallow well costs the group about $6,500 to dig and maintain. For a deep, well-maintained one it's more like $30,000. That's a lot of money whenever a missionary comes to meet with your church and asks for donations, isn't it?! And they usually talk way too long. According to Water Is Life, one child dies every 15 seconds due to a lack of water.

But mercifully, that doesn't impact us in America and has little bearing on the election process, if any.

By the way, my calculator told me that about 9,500 wells -- the expensive ones -- could be dug with the money that both major parties had raised for their candidates by the end of May.

You can rationalize all you like, and you can offer explanations as to why our priorities are the way they are. Tell me that in order to make good things happen we have to have the right man in office. Tell me that the government isn't supposed to cure all social ills. Agreed. Isn't the Church supposed to be the example in that arena? 

Something here is very, very screwed up.

"One nation under God." Remember how the religious people got horribly and vocally bent out of shape when a key politician said that America wasn't a Christian nation? You can honestly look at the numbers above and tell me that we are?

Out of the things I talked about above, to which would Jesus contribute? And would He contribute something other than money?

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Where's Jesus?

I'm surprised and feel a little silly that I never caught the connection between these passages before. Notice the phrases I've emphasized.

Anyone who wants to be my disciple must follow me, because my servants must be where I am. And the Father will honor anyone who serves me.
John 12:26, NLT

“Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the creation of the world. For I was hungry, and you fed me. I was thirsty, and you gave me a drink. I was a stranger, and you invited me into your home. I was naked, and you gave me clothing. I was sick, and you cared for me. I was in prison, and you visited me.’

“Then these righteous ones will reply, ‘Lord, when did we ever see you hungry and feed you? Or thirsty and give you something to drink? Or a stranger and show you hospitality? Or naked and give you clothing? When did we ever see you sick or in prison and visit you?’

“And the King will say, ‘I tell you the truth, when you did it to one of the least of these my brothers and sisters, you were doing it to me!’
Matthew 25:34-40, NLT

If we want to be disciples and servants of Jesus, we have to be where He is. Sometimes that "place" is not a mysterious destination we have to agonize about, asking God if this or that is what He'd have us to do. Often it's right in front of us.

In a very straightforward manner, Jesus told us just a few of the places we can find Him. Are we there?

You can stop reading here if you'd like, and jump right to criticizing me for espousing some kind of exclusively social gospel. However, this was written to expound on one small aspect of living as a disciple of Jesus Christ, not to say it encompasses everything. Read further for bonus content! These thoughts and clarifications came out of a discussion of the topic via e-mail with a friend.

My friend asked, "So we find Jesus where believers are, right? In these passages then, is Jesus talking about helping only less fortunate Christians? How do you find Jesus among non-believers?" My response was something like this (with a few edits for clarity):

"We find Jesus where believers are..." That's obviously a true statement, but keeping Scripture in mind (like the passage above, Matthew 25, for instance), "Jesus is not among non-believers" may not necessarily be a true statement. When Jesus is talking in the Matthew 25 passages, the believers He was talking about were the ones He was talking to. He never mentioned whether the hungry, poor, etc., were believers. That apparently didn't matter. That is, we're never told in Scripture to screen someone to determine if they're worthy of our help -- if they're a believer, etc. We're never told the spiritual status of the guy in the ditch that the Good Samaritan helped, for example. He was just "a man."

And then there's a different perspective making a similar point: the Church is the body of Christ; He is the head. ("We find Jesus among believers.") However, Jesus put Himself among non-believers as a regular habit when He was physically on earth. Eating with tax-collecting scum, defending a sexually promicuous woman who was not a believer, doing things that got Him labeled by the religious elite as a drunkard and a glutton. ("We find Jesus among non-believers.") Therefore, one way we find Jesus among non-believers is for us (believers) to be where non-believers are.

Again, Jesus told us and showed us just a few of the places we can find Him. Are we there?

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There Goes the Neighborhood. Or Not.

GARDENDALE | Fri Mar 2, 2012 8:15am EST -- Several years ago in Gardendale, Alabama, a suburb of Birmingham, a group of people with similar interests began to meet in a community center they rented every other Saturday. The facility in an upper middle class section of town; an area where people took pride in their landscaping, had solid high-paying jobs, two and a half kids, etc.

There was nothing at all unusual about people meeting in the community center, but when word got out that the crowd was made up of parolees, convicted felons, and people who'd been accused of any number of crimes from petty theft to rape and arson, the community was none too happy, for obvious reasons.

Fairly soon it was discovered that the meetings were essentially seminars where attendees were given what amounted to step-by-step tutorials on topics like disarming alarm systems, offensive combat techniques, and weapons training. As this leaked out, the well-to-do neighborhoods nearby became paralyzed with fear. Sales of high-end security systems, video monitoring systems, and home window security bars nearly tripled in the first two months of the group's meetings.

Over time, however, the community residents were surprised that although there was an occasional burglary in the neighborhood or a petty theft at a nearby convenience store, the crime rate didn't actually rise. On top of that, the extra income generated by the facility rental allowed the community center to make improvements on its property, initially adding a baseball diamond and after a few years, a swimming pool. The leader of the group continued to make occasional appearances on local-access TV channels and in spite of being outspoken and having rather alarming commentary on some issues, his ideas never gained traction outside the group.

It wasn't very long before the group of people meeting in the community center came to be classified as "mostly harmless."

The above is a work of fiction; a parable submitted for your consideration. Has the Church become all bark and no bite? Are our meetings just informational seminars that rarely result in action or implementation? Do we expect to get by on our reputation or things we've done in the past? Are we really "mostly harmless"?

If we lived and practiced what Jesus taught and what we teach in our meetings, wouldn't we expect to see some crazy changes in our communities?

Read more »