Wednesday, August 20, 2014

Of Ferguson, ice challenges and the church

We've seen, for the past several days, the terribly unfortunate goings on in Ferguson, Missouri. Journalists from around the world have come to watch and report and actually be involved. Apparently some have decided that if they get tear-gassed or have rocks thrown at them they can be part of the raging story.

I wondered this: In all the violence (including the tragic initial shooting of the teenager that started it all), where was the church? There are 33 churches in Ferguson, listed on an Internet site.

I discovered that four days into the rioting, the church universal showed up. First, church members came to help clean up after nightly rioting just four days after Michael Brown was shot. Two weeks into it, when peaceful protests roamed the streets of Ferguson, Missouri, the church came out in numbers. Someone decided it was time to go all in.

Still, like much of what we've read (or not read as the case may be) from the church universal about the rioting has been how silent the church has been.

I read an interview with a pastor from Atlanta who spoke to this:

"Everyone is waiting for someone else to speak up, waiting for someone else to form their opinion when there are enough facts that are out to stand up and say this is not congruent with who we say we are and what we believe. Sadly, it's been mostly evangelicals that have been largely silent. I had a good brother of mine (who's) a conservative, Baptist pastor, African-American man who said (on Twitter) it's sad to me that I've had to get all my news on this from liberals. So, that tells you where the faith community has been in this. That at the end of the day race and class are issues that are still very much bubbling beneath the surface, and we don't want to deal with those things. We want to pretend to be color/blind. We want to continue to worship in our segregated churches, and in our segregated communities. We say we worship the same God. And all those things are antithetical to the gospel."

I've watched a couple of those poker shows on television. I admit it. I don't play, like, er, ever, but I watched a couple. The most amazing thing happens from time to time when the player is rather confident or rather crazy or a bit of both. He or she just takes all his or her chips and pushes them into a big ol' pile in the middle of the table and says they are going ALL in.

That means they are so sure they have the winning hand they are betting everything they have on the next card.

ALL in. What a fascinating idea. Putting everything one has on the line, for a flip of a card. Putting it ALL onto play, win or lose.

So, let's get right to it. We are followers of a Jewish carpenter/stonemason who preached like no one before or since and who died because of it. That's who we are, or who we strive to be -- followers, I mean.

I preach my little heart out, though my wife, Mary, says with not as much passion as I once did, every other week now, hoping someone new joins the pack that is striving to be followers. That's the gig. That's the chosen mission.

But it's more than that, way more, in the way a knife can cut the outer layer of skin or can cut to the bone. Either way is a cut, but dang if the first cut isn't the deepest.

The scripture says, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it, you shall love our neighbor as yourself. A new commandment I give to you. That you shall love one another as I have loved you."

Do you see the issue here?

It's encased in one word: all.

You shall love with ALL your heart...
ALL your soul ...
ALL your mind.

Not some.
Not a little.
Not on occasion.
NOT ON SUNDAY.

All. ALL. ALL

Every second of every day. ALL. Down through the outer layers. Down to the bone. Heck, down to the DNA. Down to the sequencing that makes us who we are and in some cases who we aren't.

I am not judging, merely observing, but I know few folks to whom that truly applies, and I include myself in that number. Oh, we talk about it some, talking a good game is what some, for lack of a better title, Christians do. They can make a good presentation, looking the part on occasion, but truth be told, we're not all in like we should be.

We've made our bet, put some chips into the middle, sweated the bet just like the big ol' boys do.

But we've held back some chips, kept some money in the bank, done what we could but decided we needed to hold on for a rainy day, a better hand, a more precipitous moment. And all the while, it's raining Noah's flood and the unrighteous that we've been commanded to love and to make disciples of are drowning in a sea of blood.

The reason we do this is because we are cowards at times, just like the world is.

Take the latest craze sweeping the nation, the ice bucket challenge (which I have done and contributed accordingly). I read it has raised $23 million give or take in three weeks. That's wonderful for ALS.

My question, however, is why don't we have ice bucket challenges for diabetes, for Parkinson's, for hunger, for keeping and maintaining babies that are unwanted by their mothers -- a viable alternative for abortion? It's just a thought, but what if we did challenges for every month of the year, one right after the other, and attacked each and every problem that separates us, or kills us, or leaves us emotionally wrung out like a wet cloth. What if we dumped the ice challenge and began recording on Facebook what I'm going to call the Spirit challenge.

In other words, I suggest we dump the Holy Spirit on each of us. Just dowse ourselves in the Spirit.

What will it look like?

It will look like we've decided to give all we have and all we are to Jesus. We will have water poured over us, we'll be instantly wet and, and, and,

Oh, we already do that. We call it baptism.

It's an outward sign of an inward grace. It means we're ALL in.

ALL.

Every bit of us.

For the incarcerated, the poor, the hungry, the ill, the mentally ill, the suicidal, the depressed, the emotionally wrung out, the elderly, the ones contemplating abortion, and the list goes on and on and on and only everyone giving ALL to ALL will we do this in the sweet by and by.

For children trying to escape drug cartels, or gangs, or a life without hope. For parents who are facing dementia, or Alzeimer's, or ALS.

For the madness of war, in foreign lands and in our streets in our own nation.

For each and every life that is precious to the creator.

But my questions are pure, carved out of the essence of what it means to be a disciple. What if we ALL thought more about others than we do ourselves, and by others I truly mean OTHERS, those not like us, those who have grown up in poverty and don't know a way out, those of different cultures, skin tones, ideas? What if we ALL loved the way He loved, loves, will love? What if we ALL stopped the absolutely senseless bombings, and fighting, and killing over of all the dang things, religion?

What if we ALL just STOPPED -- stopped being the ones who give what we can, do what we can and even love what we can? Taking love out of our spiritual wallets from the ones section and handing it out on street corners with our windows rolled a quarter of the way down so we don't actually come in contact with someone in need.

Instead, even for a month, a measly month of Spirit challenges, what if we began to be the body of Christ? Be the body? BE?

As Mark Hall of Casting Crowns once wrote, "If we are the body, why aren't his arms reaching, why aren't his hands healing, why aren't his words teaching? If we are the body, why aren't his feet going, why is His love not showing them there is a way..."

Why aren't we doing this?

The answer to ALL the questions is...

Because we're not ALL in.

2 comments:

Kevin H said...

That's "helpful" in that it is challenging in a troubling, demanding way. But what is the ALL IN response to this Ferguson calamity? It's well and good to stand in the street against the brazen, discriminatory use of deadly force by our own policemen. But what about when the protesters use the other guy's wrong-doing as an excuse to do more wrong-doing? How do we stop this evil cycle of fear and anger and violence which leads to more fear and more anger and more violence? You can insert any other messed place of Earth for Ferguson. Maybe there is no great dramatic act available for all of us to do. Maybe we need to be ALL IN in smaller, closer ways. For starters, we might recognize that when white people and black people talk about race matters, they are not quite having the same conversation. It took me years of listening to things I didn't really want to hear before I realized this. But ultimately, only in seeking the Kingdom do we transcend our own narrow viewpoints. Can we be a ALL IN for that?

Unknown said...

Amen kevin