May 24, 2010: Hard to Love People (continued)
Posted on : May 24th, 2010 | By office | Category: Bread for the Journey
Last week I posted a video clip called A Loving Contempt. In it Bart Campolo shares with us his experience of doing ministry in an urban neighborhood. A few years back Bart and his family moved to an impoverished urban neighborhood in Cincinnati, Ohio to love and support the community. But as is evident from the video clip, it’s not that simple. Life is complicated and messy. The video clip makes you squirm uncomfortably in you seat – it’s disturbing and challenging.
It’s easy to love lovable people, but the hard to love people, those we feel contempt towards are the real challenges. When it comes to “love your neighbor” Jesus expects all who follow him to show a love for others which is quite out of the ordinary:
TO YOU WHO ARE READY FOR THE TRUTH, I SAY THIS:
Love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer for that person. If someone slaps you in the face, stand there and take it. If someone grabs your shirt, gift wrap your best coat and make a present of it. If someone takes unfair advantage of you, use the occasion to practice the servant life. No more tit-for-tat stuff. Live generously.
Here is a simple rule of thumb for behavior: Ask yourself what you want people to do for you; then grab the initiative and do it for them! If you only love the lovable, do you expect a pat on the back? Run-of-the-mill sinners do that. If you only help those who help you, do you expect a medal? Garden-variety sinners do that. If you only give for what you hope to get out of it, do you think that’s charity? The stingiest of pawnbrokers does that.
I tell you, love your enemies. Help and give without expecting a return. You’ll never—I promise—regret it. Live out this God-created identity the way our Abba God lives toward us, generously and graciously, even when we’re at our worst. Our God is kind; you be kind.
Don’t pick on people, jump on their failures, criticize their faults— unless, of course, you want the same treatment. Don’t condemn those who are down; that hardness can boomerang. Be easy on people; you’ll find life a lot easier. Give away your life; you’ll find life given back, but not merely given back—given back with bonus and blessing. Giving, not getting, is the way. Generosity begets generosity. (Luke 6:27-38) *
Jesus was and is radical, and he seriously offended a lot of people with his teachings. Yes, the good news of Jesus comforts us, but it also disturbs us. Truth be told, if you don’t find yourself squirming over the difficult demands of the Christian lifestyle, you either have not read Jesus’ teachings or you attend a church where the pastor shies away from Jesus’ contentious teachings.
Bart Campolo could have been a pastor in the suburbs, but he chose to minister to a low socio-economic inner city community as he imitates Jesus who spent most of his time ministering to the poor, the outcast, and the stranger – those on the fringes of society. We are told that he often ate with tax collectors, sinners, prostitutes, those whose social status many frowned upon. Jesus didn’t set up a church in a nice area of Nazareth – he left his home to seek out the lost, the broken ones. It’s in an impoverished urban neighborhood of Cincinnati that Bart realized what the writer of the First Letter of John really meant when he said: Let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, for God is love. (1 John 4:7-8)
Terry Gains once wrote:
Today’s church experience is all about feeling good about yourself. “I’m okay, you’re okay. God loves you and you’re a good person. We won’t talk about nasty issues that make you uncomfortable such as capital punishment, racism, and similar issues. We’re saved; we will give others a chance to have our salvation if they will come to our church; if not, it’s a shame.” Hiding behind this theology is an attitude suggesting that the unsaved deserve their unfortunate conditions. “The poor, the criminal, the unlikable, and the unconventional created their own misery…. The pastor wants to be popular, and must avoid all controversy and unpleasant topics. The secret is to appease members so as not to lose any; we must maintain church growth. It helps when church members can feel they are in a very select or elite group knowing there are plenty of persons left out, and they deserve it. We want to be assured that our many possessions are not sinful despite of what Jesus said about materialism. As long as we go the church and take our loyal oath to Jesus, proclaiming him a good guy, everything will be all right. *
While these churches on the edges of suburbs draw so many people, most shy away from the small urban and inner city churches where the need is the greatest. It is then that someone such as Bart Campolo comes along and reminds us what “a follower of Jesus Christ” is all about.
Has Jesus offended you yet? Are you feeling uncomfortable? If not, then you have not heard the gospel yet!
Kobie
* Translation used for Luke 6:27-38 is from The Message.
* From Lions and Cows Dining Together by Terry Gains, 2005
June 7th, 2010 at 7:30 pm
What?? So few comments, even on these two Breads? Verily and forsooth is LA too Laid Back.
Or perhaps it’s not as controversial as Kobie hoped. I for one did not squirm in my seat since I know that “Life is complicated and messy.” I am very thankful that I do not live under such conditions but I am well aware that many people do.
We know that where human needs are greatest is also where bad decisions often make things worse. Recently there was a Pew Foundation study reinforcing this. It showed that in poverty-stricken parts of the world, the men (what, always the men?) have zero money for their children’s schoolbooks or rent. Yet they manage to find money for booze and other chemical forms of escape. Yet don’t the rich squander as foolishly on multiple houses, yachts and private planes?
While we can ponder our philosophy of giving (or not giving) to beggars on the street, we can get a call from a friend or relative – someone whose cry for help we cannot ignore. That cry for help can be tinged with anger and frustration, from someone who does not want to need your help. Worse, we often get such calls when the situation is far beyond our ability to help.
I know I have felt uncomfortable when approached for help. Is it a deadbeat? Someone truly in need? Someone who could get violent? Many times I have shied away from a sense of self-preservation, only thinking in retrospect how I might have helped with little risk to myself or my family. But too late! The chance is gone, I failed another test! Or is it that I warded off another threat? Years later, I still wonder about some encounters.
I don’t need pastors assuring me everything is OK. I just need reminders that there may be another test at any moment.