Its strange how things can touch your mind and heart. I was watching an episode of Numb3rs this morning and something touched me. It was about gang killings. The numbers, if accurate, were staggering. In the L.A. area alone there were some 8000 shootings and 2000 resulting deaths in a period of 4 years. I know it was just a show, but it hit on a really tough thing. I don’t know how accurate the numbers where but it was staggering to think of how many Americans were killing other Americans, for who knows what reason. My first reaction was a racial one, then a social one. I felt so separated and distant from those people and what they are living in. But after a while my heart began to grieve for them. I was thinking about young people filled with anger and hopelessness, killing people around them to preserve their respect or some other intangible thing. Maybe it has to do with territory, maybe its about power and drugs, but it struck me how these people were busy killing each other and often killing innocent people not involved in this madness. What struck me was that they are fighting against the wrong things. They have made their neighbors their enemies. They have set greed and pride as their gods. And what they are reaping is the harvest of their own investment.
Now I can sit back and go, “Oh the pity, why don’t they know better?” or “Why do they live that way?” I’m sure there is some choice involved, but some of it is that they must feel trapped in the choices that those before them have made and the choices their parents have made and the choices they have made. Now we can sit in our white urban middle class homes and cluck our tongues going tisk-tisk, but are we any better as we chase after the dream of wealth and comfort. We may not murder our neighbors, but we sure seem to ignore them and pursue our own goals. Is not our ignoring the needs of our neighbors as condemning as those who are killing them?
I cannot speak with any authority to Americans in general, but I can speak to Christians with the authority of the Word of God and the testimony of the Holy Spirit. Jesus didn’t save us to live safe secure lives. He saved us to be instruments of His will in the world. How many Christians are really concerned for and therefore loving their neighbors? This is an important part of the great commandment. Jesus further redefined the term neighbor in the parable of the Good Samaritan. A good neighbor isn’t just one who looks after others like them, but a good neighbor is someone who takes care of those who might even hate him.
In the story of the good Samaritan, we sometimes forget the background. Jews and Samaritans where very divided about the place of worship. Jews hated Samaritans so much that the would walk miles out of their way to avoid going into Samaria. Sounds a lot like rich Americans and the inner-city urbane areas some people call ghettos. Well it is the despised Samaritan who helps a Jew in need. In this story Jesus shows that true love of neighbors knows no cultural, ethnic or territorial bounds.
I know I have a long way to go on this one. I have few friends of color. I currently live in a country that is very very predominately white, yet I encounter cultural differences that I too must learn to cross that I might show the love of my Lord and Savior Jesus.
Back the main point. Jesus wants us to love people regardless of how they view us and treat us. We WILL be persecuted for obeying Jesus. We WILL be ridiculed for following Jesus, but that’s okay. We’re in good company with all the saints that when before us. What isn't okay is living a life of ease and refusing to follow Jesus’ example by loving people that most religious people refuse to love. It’s a high standard, but Jesus doesn’t ask us to do anything He didn’t already show could be done and He gave us his Holy Spirit to empower us to do it. We are not in this alone. He hasn’t left us out to dry. He has in fact given us the dynamite to change the world around us. Its time we put it to work for His Name’s sake.
As Christians we aren’t called to be grumblers and complainers, but instead triumphant world changers. Not by purposely changing it, or by seeking to be world changers but by being obedient to God’s will, loving and offering salvation to all who will hear. And then teaching them then how to live as people of the Living God; teaching them how to love their neighbors and their enemies with courage, love and determination that flows out of a ongoing personal relationship with Our God and Savior.
Right now I am on the wrong side of the world to do much about this in America, but I pray that as I am praying for God’s will in this, that you too will pray and ask God, “What do you want me to do about this?”
How do we help the people of inner cities combat the real crimes? How do we help them to stop worshiping at the alters of personal power and personal glory? How do we change how we live to affect the lives of others for the better? Our lives cannot be about amassing wealth and creature comforts. Our lives cannot be about protecting ourselves from the “bad” people.
Our lives need to be defined in our relationship with Jesus Christ. Our lives need to exhibit the transformational work of the Holy Spirit. We cannot ignore the needs of our neighbors and call ourselves Christians. Jesus clearly stated in the end times judgment of the goats and the sheep that his people minister to the needs of the people around them, while those who just think they are His do not help their neighbors and therefore are not His people. If you have any problems with this I suggest you read the gospels a few more times and get back to me.
In His Love and by His Grace,
P.A.
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