Friday, December 2, 2011

This is a call....

Sorry, this isn't a post about an opening Foo Fighters track.  Also,  let me put this disclaimer out there now,  this one is for "churchy" people.  These thoughts have been brewing for a couple years,  and while I've been known to get into these topics from time to time in person,  I think now is a good time to put it into ink, or at least ones and zeroes.  I know I have a bit of a reputation as an instigator on certain things,  and I certainly hope this instigates some thought and reflection on something that I think is a pretty big deal.  Let me also throw it out there now - I fail at these ideas every day, but I strive to be more aware of how I handle the thoughts and situations that come with the territory.  So please don't think I'm typing on a high horse,  there is no room for a horse here.

In November 2008 I was given the opportunity to travel to Lebanon for the church I was working for at the time.  There wasn't much of an agenda.  We were told to go over there,  and see what was going on - see what the church can do to help ministry in that country.  A pretty broad palette to paint from,  and I think of the four of us that went,  we all came back with some different pictures in our head.

Mine had all to do with perspective...

Preparing for the trip,  I was shocked at the feedback coming from friends and colleagues...."why Lebanon?", "why muslims", "you're probably going to be kidnapped","you're gonna get shot at", "we're going to see you in a hostage video on the news","don't tell them you're a christian, they'll chop your head off" etc.  Basically,  to these people it seemed like a pretty dumb idea.

So I went.  While I was there,  God was showing me little things the entire time.  We spent some time going to different families' houses and visiting with them, giving them food etc.  Almost every family we met,  God would remind me of a family that I knew at home in Buffalo.  It was like he was saying "doesn't this family remind you of this particular family at home, they're so similar". Then I went to a church in Beirut,  and they had a time of corporate prayer,  and the list of people and needs that were prayed for was like a list we would pray for in our staff meetings at the church - dominated by cancer, for the individuals and their families struggling with the disease.  Besides the language barrier,  I knew the lives that these people were living every day.  I know there's the obvious that they have seen war in their back yards (literally),  and have had to deal with hardships I never have,  but when it comes down to the every day worries and burden,  I felt our lives were the same, we had the same needs.

After a few days we took a day trip out into the "country" and spent some time at a Christian school in a city were most of the students came from Muslim families,  and a good amount of them were orphans.  We walked around this modest campus,  and there was an unfinished construction project,  no workers doing anything,  just a basement, foundation,  and concrete slab on top of it to form the first floor, no walls, and no activity.  What had happened was an American church decided to sponsor, raise money, and pay for a construction project to provide a gymnasium,  and other space for this school.  Awesome.  Then some of the American planners traveled to Lebanon,  visited the school,  and when they reported to their home church that the majority of the students came from Muslim families,  they pulled the plug.  They freakin pulled the plug.  That is the ministry of this school.  Due to the poor public education,  families that have the money to privately educate their kids will send them to a private Christian school, even Muslim families.  So what happens?  These kids are exposed to the Gospel,  they take it home in their homework,  they share it with their parents and siblings,  and families are coming to Christ through this school.  But this American church could not get past that for whatever reason - because of the stigma that Muslims in America bring....

You see, you say Muslim in America,  and immediately the picture in your head is guys with beards with towels on their heads,  that mistreat and abuse women,  who are frothing at the mouth at the idea of flying a plane into a building.  In America,  Muslim = terrorist.  In America,  Muslim is not a religion,  but a guise for a political agenda.  You say Muslim in America,  and we think of buildings burning, buildings collapsing, and hell breaking loose on our turf.  I'm not trying discount, or downplay the severity of the actions of terrorism groups - but I am trying to call attention to the uneducated,  media driven, paranoid fallacies  that have been burned into our brains about a large group of people in our country,  and the world.  Our perspective could not be farther from the reality.

I'm not going to make this a political conversation - like I said before,  this is for the "churchy" people.  And let's be honest,  there's nobody more scared of a Muslim,  than a Western Christian.  All it takes is to hear 5 minutes of any of the "Christian" media leaders to hear the absolute paranoia.  President Obama, and his supposed Muslim agenda....I've heard "anti-christ" used more than once to describe him.  We're protesting Mosques being built,  we're spending time, energy, and money on these useless exercises to squelch Muslims' voices and their rights.  In the name of Christianity?  What the hell are we thinking?

Spending time with Muslims in their homes made me realize one thing.  Nobody gives a crap I'm American.  In fact, nobody assumed that I was American when I was there,  they were surprised,  they all thought we were from Europe.  I think that the American church has this idea that because we're from the most powerful country in the world, we have all these resources (read: money) that we can fly our Gospel all over the place,  and do the world this huge favor to share with them what we have at home.  We don't care about the context of their lives,  we don't care about their history,  we don't care about what social, and family issues it might raise, we hop on a plane,  and as soon as we land, the first thing we want to say is "I'm American,   I'm going to fix everything, because we have it all right at home.  Do things our way, Jesus loves you,  you're welcome."

What a load of crap.  The church of America will become impotent if that type of thinking continues.  We have to stop viewing the world through glasses that have a tint of the red white and blue.

The question is this: What kingdom do you belong to?  Do you belong to the kingdom of America?  Do you belong to the kingdom of American mega-churches?  kingdom of Pat Robertson? kingdom of Conservative Politics?  or do you belong to the Kingdom of God?  I think once we all start operating under the perspective of the Kingdom of God,  and throw away any identity of country, race, denomination etc,  we will begin to see some wild things happen.

You see, once I stopped viewing myself as an American, but as an ambassador of God's Kingdom,  and seeing how all these people in the Middle East are exactly like me,  with the same hopes, same dreams,  same struggles,  and same need for Christ that I have,  it made it easy to share Christ with them, the barriers were gone.

We need to stop looking at people with whatever perspective we come with.  It shouldn't matter if the person is Catholic, Christian, Muslim, gay, straight, young, old, Republican, Democrat, Agnostic, Atheist, whatever.  The bottom line is we need to look at all of these people through the eyes of Christ,  remember that they are created in the image of God,  just like we are,  and then with the power of the Spirit,  share the same love of Christ that saved us in the first place.

It shouldn't matter anymore what the "lost" come in with.  I'm so frustrated with the church blaming the sick for being sick. I'm so sick of groups of people in our communities being ignored by the church because the church thinks they don't deserve their time or attention.  I'm sick of the church making the determination that whatever problems or needs these people have,  they brought upon themselves.  I'm sick of hearing that help will not be extended,  because the horrible consequences of their lifestyle is what they deserve.  These are the people that we need to be running to.  I don't know about you,  but i've been in enough sin situations and struggles in my life where I deserve a lot worse than what I have.  And you know what,  i wasn't cast out of my church.  I could have been,  I would have understood why too,  but grace prevailed,  and I want to extend that same grace.

I was very happy tonight to be a part of an event that was designed to bridge the gap between the church community,  and the community of people that are locally dealing with HIV and AIDS.  On the other hand,  I mourn the years that the organizers of the event were literally chased out of churches for wanting to reach out to these people.  I mourn the souls that could not be reached,  due to the judgement of people that feel it's ok to selectively share the Grace of our Savior.  I'm sorry, but the bride of Christ is not called to be a hybrid of SNL's "church lady",  and Judge Judy.

We're called to be "little Christs".  I don't have to look farther than John 4 to see Jesus reaching out to an "unclean" person, fully aware of their sin and circumstance,  and extending the joy of Salvation anyway.  Just in that one instance,  a family and community was transformed by Christ.  The other great thing about that passage....the disciples reaction to Jesus dealing with a Samaritan woman.  They didn't question Jesus.  They didn't say "She's Samaritan,  she deserves damnation", "She's an adulterer,  you can't save her".  They sat back  and watched Jesus ignore the biggest prejudice of their time,  and bring His Kingdom to that place.   They had spent enough time with Jesus,  to know his character well enough to know,  that this was the new paradigm.  Imagine how that could exponentially happen in your community if you only got past the stigma that came with the "unclean" people.

I know this is ridiculously long and wordy.  But I hope I convey effectively the experience,  and truth that has radically changed my life in the past couple years.  I hope that this rant finds you in a place where you can step closer to seeing your world through the eyes of Christ,  so you can be rid of the hindrances that keep you from sharing the love of Christ.