This is true. I am grateful for the blessing of growing up among the world's wealthy (not the wealthy of the US, but truly within the wealthy of the world). I do not have to worry much about where my next meal will come from like 1 in 6 people in the world. I often consider myself poor, yet I am not 1 of 6 people in the world who earn 1.25 a day or less - the international poverty level. (Facts from Bread for the World).
Jesus calls me to be a disciple, but he has high standards. He is a revolutionary of his time, doing things most "respectable" folks would definitely call strange. But at the same time, he shows us that we can make a better world for all of God's children by following him and sharing the good news of God's love everywhere. His message is still radical today. These are some of the strange things he tells us to do in the last few chapters of Matthew I've been reading:
- Serve one another, don't strive to be first (23.11)
- Follow the law (commandments) but with mercy, faithfulness, and justice (23.23)
- Use your gifts, talents for the glory of God (25. 14-30)
- Real discipleship will grow fruit, if you do not grow - serve and love your neighbor, you will be among the goats, not the sheep (25. 31-46)
- Have faith and miraculous things will happen
- Be generous
- Do not judge others
- Divorce will not be honored unless there is unfaithfulness
- Care for the sick, the widowed, the orphaned, the poor, and the helpless
- Love.
In our happy comfortable middle & upper class faith we feel good about giving to the offering plate to serve those in need. We explain that when Jesus said "sell all your possessions and give it to the poor" he didn't really MEAN that. It's okay to be wealthy. God blesses those who work hard. Having 5 TV's in your house and multiple cars in your driveway is fine, as long as you go to church and try to do good.
But what if Jesus really did mean all those things the gospels say he said? What if to be a disciple I am really charged with going out and serving those in need with my obvious excess? What if all christians went out and really got to know the hurting? the homeless? the sick? the helpless? and loved and served them? What would our world look like?
One story particularly stayed with me. There was a group of homeless families who had taken up residence in an abandoned cathedral while on waiting lists for subsidized housing and the church officials weren't very happy about it. With the help of college students however they were able to continue living there and bring about attention to their needs (in Philadelphia, PA - p.s. that's needy people in the US). One day a church dropped off a box of things marked "for the homeless"- a box full of microwave popcorn. Microwave popcorn. Do you really think the homeless have the ability to heat it? Let alone the need for it? Around the same time the Mafia came over and brought bikes for each of the children. How can the church be the hands and feet of God if we can't really understand the need?
Jesus's message is strange and makes is uncomfortable. Many walked away from it. But it was radical and lifechanging. I don't know about you, but I want to be a part of that - it sounds wonderful.
So my first step - get deeper with my volunteering. There have been a lot of folks who have lost their jobs around here, and there is a lot of need. Second, continue teaching children to open their minds to the world and the difference they can make in it. Third, learn from people who have gone before me changing the world. Fourth, find my own Calcutta. Mother Teresa said "Calcutta's are everywhere if only we have the eyes to see. Find your Calcutta."
Lord, help me to grow in knowledge, experience, and wisdom to find the needs that you have prepared me to meet. Lead me to those who need your love in the way I can provide.
your sister in Christ~ Erin
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