Living into what we say

I wonder, do we really have the eyes of Jesus? Do we see those with so much less than ourselves all around us? Do we really want to live out what we've said we're living out?

I understand some of the ideas that what some have earned, one should be able to keep. I get that. But what I don't get is living into that idea that Jesus would have us live into and still say we should be able to keep what is ours. The two ideas are inevitably going to clash. You can believe what is mine is mine. You can believe what yours is mine. Or you can believe what’s mine is yours. God allows that choice. What He isn’t so happy with, it seems, is to say one thing and live another. He just isn’t.

I wish for every Christian, particularly those hung up on theology and doctrine and Protestantism (me much of the time I'm afraid) to listen to these words:

"I prefer a church which is bruised, hurting and dirty because it has been out on the streets, rather than a church which is unhealthy from being confined and from clinging to its own security," he wrote. "I do not want a church concerned with being at the center and then ends up by being caught up in a web of obsessions and procedures. More than by fear of going astray, my hope is that we will be moved by the fear of remaining shut up within structures which give us a false sense of security, within rules which make us harsh judges, within habits which make us feel safe, while at our door people are starving and Jesus does not tire of saying to us, 'Give them something to eat.'"

That sounds a lot like the Louisiana United Methodist Annual Conference Bishop, Cynthia Harvey, and many other Protestant sources like Rick Warren and the like but in fact it is Pope Francis, who is a wonderful gift from God. In a 50,000 papal statement this week, he also said, "Some people continue to defend trickle-down theories which assume that economic growth, encouraged by a free market, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naive trust in the goodness of those wielding economic power and in the sacra­lized workings of the prevailing economic system.”

This afternoon, a cold but bright Wednesday, and I write this not to glorify the objective, one dear church of mine will take a huge box of goodies to a household that includes two families, eight children and a load of pain. What they don't have is what we have. Food stuffs. Paper products. Little things for children that let them know there is indeed a church, a people out there, out there that will get dirty and bruised in order to deliver things worth being thankful for. Still.

We are a day before Thanksgiving, and even before that I was seeing things like the Great Christmas Light challenge or some such on TV. Rudolph came on to shine his nose on us before the turkey was carved. I've been seeing this commercial for the I-pad Air and there are these two little girls who set up the I-pad to catch Santa and they fall asleep and they're so cute and all I can think of is how beautiful and expensive is their house and since as kids they already have an I-pad and everything else imaginable what can their list to Santa hold?

Is that a message that everyone is comfortable with in this country?

Where are we, that the church isn't bruised, hurting and dirty? And why is it so hard to get the church out of the building?

Bishop Harvey has made it a priority in our conference, a group of more than 600 United Methodist Churches, to have a mission, a vision and some core values in the coming year.

She says "we will place the needs and interests of people before the needs and interests of the institution. We will prioritize transformative relationships over sustaining buildings and budgets."

The message, from all sorts of areas in this country, heck in this world, is that we have so we must give. That's not unique to Catholicism or to Protestantism or whatever.

It is Christian.