Hope & Justice
I know I talk about Hope alot, but its just so worth it. Recently, they have been giving a series on the call of Christians to fight for justice in our neighborhoods and around the world. They have been talking about awareness, advocacy, and being an unstoppable force of good bringing hope to a hopeless world.
They have been making people very uncomfortable. They have been saying that we need to act. They have not been leaving room for complacency and apathy. They have been vividly displaying the call of Christ, and how his kingdom, his backwards kingdom, is supposed to be shown "on earth as it is in heaven."
"What if we poured out love for the AIDS victim without concern for how they contracted AIDS? What if we offered hope to the young mother who'd had her fourth child without being married? What if we offered financial support to the man who was broke because he used his money to buy drugs?
We might think, 'To help in these situations would be irresponsible.' Maybe so. In Luke 15 the prodigal son's older brother certainly thought in this way. In his own mind and heart, the older brother had placed his younger brother in the category of the irresponsible and undeserving. But their father had placed him in the category of the beloved.
In the Gospel's, it was Jesus' help to the 'undeserving' that made it clear the 'Kingdom of Heaven is near.' The Biblical message is that we are all undeserving of God's lavish love and grace."
What does this mean to our conservative christianity which says we withhold our taxes to prevent welfare manipulators, or we don't give money to the man on the street because he will just buy alchohol, or we don't help the AIDS patient because they could have contracted it through immoral ways?
This, the theology of Jesus, changes all of that. Everything is backwards. Everything is compassion. We should withhold nothing.
They have been making people very uncomfortable. They have been saying that we need to act. They have not been leaving room for complacency and apathy. They have been vividly displaying the call of Christ, and how his kingdom, his backwards kingdom, is supposed to be shown "on earth as it is in heaven."
"What if we poured out love for the AIDS victim without concern for how they contracted AIDS? What if we offered hope to the young mother who'd had her fourth child without being married? What if we offered financial support to the man who was broke because he used his money to buy drugs?
We might think, 'To help in these situations would be irresponsible.' Maybe so. In Luke 15 the prodigal son's older brother certainly thought in this way. In his own mind and heart, the older brother had placed his younger brother in the category of the irresponsible and undeserving. But their father had placed him in the category of the beloved.
In the Gospel's, it was Jesus' help to the 'undeserving' that made it clear the 'Kingdom of Heaven is near.' The Biblical message is that we are all undeserving of God's lavish love and grace."
What does this mean to our conservative christianity which says we withhold our taxes to prevent welfare manipulators, or we don't give money to the man on the street because he will just buy alchohol, or we don't help the AIDS patient because they could have contracted it through immoral ways?
This, the theology of Jesus, changes all of that. Everything is backwards. Everything is compassion. We should withhold nothing.
posted by becca at 11:32 AM
1 Comments:
i with that could've gone to hope the second weekend of spring break. i'm jealous you probably get to go this weekend as well.
What if we lived in a world where there was no judgement for the help we provided? what kind of change in the action of helping others would there be?
Post a Comment
<< Home