Tuesday, January 8, 2008

A Day Two Reflection: Theology of Compassion and Justice by ERICA NELLESSEN

Proverbs 14:31...
Isaiah 58:10...
Matthew 25:31-46...
1 John 3:17-18...
Proverbs 29:7...
Jeremiah 22:16...

You don't understand. I know I definitely don't. It seems that as I go about my life God continues to show me pictures, give me little glimpses of the poor and oppressed in our world. I know that there is no way that I can ever understand it all. I will never know about all of the problems: hunger, street children, AIDS, glue addictions, the list goes on and on. I seem to learn about a new issue in a new corner of the world every day. Today was no different. I saw a movie about little innocent children with big brown eyes stare at a movie camera as they worked, enslaved to an oppressive owner. I saw a new dirt street, I saw more injustice and I saw more children I wanted to help. It seems I will never know all of the problems, let alone the magnitude of each one and the hurt and pain experienced by each individual suffereing through them.

Yet there is one thing that unites all of these people and all of these problems. One fact that I can understand, well, at least enough to give me hope and move me to action. It's a fact I've rediscovered today in a new and real way. That reality is the fact that God cares about these people and he wants their problems to be made right. We serve a God of restoraton. We serve a God of compassion and mercy. We serve a God who doesn't like the way our world is today, he came to restore it to perfection by becoming a part of it. That's just who he is. He cares about the poor. It's so opposite, yet so perfect.

As Christians, we all say we want to "be like Jesus", right? After all, he has commanded us to be like him, so really that's what we need to be about, what he's about. Well, look at what God cares about, what he ordained to be a intrical part of the way we as Christians are to function. Look at what he himself says will bring Him glory, what he did while he was physically here on earth. He cares about the poor. He provided for their physical needs. It's a perfect manifestation of his gospel. It's the Good-news made tangible. Therefore, we are to do this as well.

And let me get one thing straight. When I said care, you probably thought, "Ok, I do". Everyone with a heart would say that yeah, they don't want an innocent kid to die of hunger in Africa. But when I say care, I don't mean a feeling or a watery eye. I mean the care that Jesus means. Jesus' definition of caring is the physical, hands-on, no doubt about it caring. His feelings are also actions. He actually died on the cross for us. When he said in Matthew 25 that when one feeds the hungry or clothes the naked they are actually doing it for him, I beleive he means literally. He wants us to meet people's needs here on earth. Show them the spiritual gospel by wrapping it up in a physical one. I beleive that they are one and the same. Once you think about it, caring for the poor is a perfect picture of what God did, and he wants us to be like him.

Now think about it, if he REALLY wants us to care for the poor in this way, if we take the thousands of scripture passages about doing this to their actiual application (and yes there are thousands) your life would be radically different. But I mean, no, God would never want you to read his holy word and actually take it to its literal end and live it out now would he? He could never actually want you to maybe get uncomfortable, be radical, make sacrifices and be a little odd, now would he? Or maybe...that's exactly what he wants us to do. Think about it, but don't just keep it as this concept of a good thing. Read the verses, ponder the changes, pick something, ANYTHING, that you can actually, physically do... do exactly what God wants his people to look like. And then...do it. And who knows, maybe things will start to change, you may even begin to view God differently. And maybe the people you help will begin to even notice him as well...

No comments: