I guess there really is a synchronicity going on, everywhere I go, community, Sunday night's teaching on Mark 10 about the rich young ruler, the book I'm reading 'Irresistible Revolution' by Shane Clairborne, 1975 (all the quotes below are from this book), are all talking about one thing, giving it all to follow Jesus, reaching out to those in despair and afflicted, homeless and hungry.
In the book something that stands out is a quote from Mother Teresa, of whom after ignoring the constant joking of others calling me her name, I am beginning to resonate with her heart and see what she was seeing and did not ignore, she said 'Calcuttas are everywhere if we have the eyes to see. Find your Calcutta'. There is no doubt Calcuttas are everywhere and in contrast to the high rises and highways it is easy to look up and out so that those laying on the ground don't exist. The homeless will tell you what hurts the most is how those passing by will not look at their face but look past them as if they didn't exist.
'So I did a little survey, probing Chrisitians about their (mis)conceptions of Jesus. It was fun just to see how many people think of Jesus. It was fun to just see how many people think Jesus loves homosexuals or are kosher. But I learned a striking thing from the survey. I asked participiants who claimed to be 'strong followers of Jesus' whether Jesus spent time with the poor. Nearly 80 percent said yes. Later in the survey, I sneaked in another question. I asked the same group of strong followers whether they spent time with the poor , and less than 2 percent said they did. I learned a powerful lesson. We can admire and worship Jesus without doing what he did. We can applaud what he preached and stood for without caring about the same things. We can adore his cross without taking up ours. I had come to see that the great tragedy in the church is not that rich Christians do not care about the poor but that rich Christians do not know the poor.'
'Over and over, the dying and the lepers would whisper the mystical word 'namaste' in my ear. We really don't have a word like it in English (or even much of a Western conception of it). They explained to me that namaste means 'I honor the Holy One who lives in you.'
Well here I am, I can't wait anymore, I am giving an 'all call'; if Jesus said 'give it all', I can give it all and go out into the streets and be a servant. To look for Jesus in the streets. To go out at every opportunity I have. Every church has an organization either already established, or just beginning in street ministry for the homeless. Search them out, participate, and give your all as a servant. If your church doesn't have one start one. But it isn't sitting back and joyfully acknowledging that someone is doing it and participating vicariously with offerings, it is physically participating, going out and with radical love and looking into the eyes of those hurting and say 'I see you and love you'.
'Irresistible Revolution' only serves to confirm, I need to get off my butt and be that servant. Remember the zeal as a new born Christian? Ever heard stories of those who have gone to India and been in the midst of the poorest of poor and come back to our comfort and wealth and have a hard time adjusting to it, they were changed forever and had hearts hurting to serve. We all were fearless at the beginning and went out like barbarians, remember the miracles? Then comfort brought complacency, we cannot ignore it any longer, comfort will be the very thing that destroys the walls of the 'church' as it is today and maybe that is a good thing, because it will force us out the doors into the community.
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