St. John Studies

I love my adult Sunday school class. It is a collection of people with all kinds of backgrounds, orientations if you will. I have a twenty-year-old and the age goes up from there [maybe to mid seventies, no one is telling, you know the age thing].

This past Sunday, we focused on Isaiah 53 and the author of our book quoted Isaiah 53 with the pronoun “whom” in verse one and in verse two, the Scripture used the pronoun “he.” Now, you may not believe this from my writing, but I do have a couple of degrees in English. I was always a grammar nerd from the 7th grade thanks to a wonderful teacher name Miss Anna Belle Sherer. I loved her use of diagramming and when she introduced that to me, English began to make sense. I could break sentences down and eventually learn to control English to say what I wanted to say [without breaking grammar rules].

I began my Sunday school lesson this past Sunday with a discussion of who is “whom” and who is “he”; the idea being that in reading the Bible [or any writing] you can’t just plunge into a passage without knowing the antecedent for the pronoun [the word the pronoun refers to]. The antecedent tells who the “whom” is and who the “he” is. I don’t know that this little grammar lesson made much impact but it made me think about pronouns and today’s post will be dedicated to those little word substitutes.

Pastor Labberton* spends three pages discussing the pronouns we, us and they and he mentions I and me along the way.

Do we pay attention to the power of these words? What do they mean? How do they bring people together or tear people apart? He has and I have already spent some posts explaining the phrases “this side of things” and “that side of things.” This side denotes the people who have enough means to live a comfortable life. That side denotes those people who don’t have a comfortable life because they are struggling to live [aka “they are poor”]. Those are phrases, not pronouns or “substitutes for nouns”.

But how do little words separate people? How do little words separate the “haves” from the “have-nots.” Labberton states “I forms the basic building block of we. . . .the assumption is that I is the core and we is the product produced by the free choices that lead us into common, shared associations.” I can yield to the power of “we” but it is sometimes hard to put what you feel you need to do above what others feel “we” all need to do. Social groups thrive on the idea of we. Family thrives on the idea of we. Ethnic groups thrive on the idea of we. Of course some of this group identity is good; I feel the idea of a family bonding together is fantastic and if a little word like “we” helps that, that is great.

What is the downside of we? The downside is when people value their own opportunities and don’t desire to share them with others. When people emphasize belonging to the “in group” and want to exclude others. When people are proud of the money or power they have and want to run with other people of means and power and everyone in the group desires to exclude those with less money and power.

Suddenly people with sufficient means to live can feel they don’t want to help others. It is not the “cool thing” to do. Others in their social group don’t do it so let’s not do anything that would challenge the norm.

Then the last pronoun “they” comes in handy. Labberton says “they is a word that can push away…It draws a boundary, a perimeter, a distinction, a separation, a distance. They is a kind of anti-identity, an anti-definition of I or we.”

Now I have put all my dear readers to sleep. We have plunged too far into this discussion of the little words we, us and they.

Let’s be realistic, we use them all the time [I just did, didn’t I?]. Labberton does not want us to feel guilty about using pronouns; he just wants us to pay attention to how we use them. My comments are from his chapter “Paying Attention to Paying Attention.”

The truth is, we often don’t pay attention, do we?

As a people, Christians don’t mean to exclude those with need [maybe some do, but many are open to helping]. The problem crops up when we find ourselves confronted with opportunities to help our neighbors and “I” don’t want to do it. It is too uncomfortable for “me” to assist others. Christians sometimes socialize with other Christians and if “I” want to help my neighbor and others don’t want to do that, “we” won’t.

It is an easy jump to they: Who are they? What do they want? They don’t seem genuine to me. Do you think they are just using the system? They don’t really need our help.

One can easily see the distance that the word “they” creates.

This side of things…

That side of things…

“They” are on “that side of things”…and the fact of the matter is “they” need our help.

*Mark Labberton, The Dangerous Act of Loving Your Neighbor

We all have them.

“Alarms” that tell us what to say and how to behave when we find ourselves surrounded by people we do not know.

Here is what we want.

We want to be around people who are accepting of us. We want to be around people who share our opinions, people who will not judge us negatively. People we share things with.

Pastor Labberton really gets into the social psychology of being with people with the words* “Alarms that neurologically register fear and monitor safety. Body language, smell and eye movement, skin color, style of dress, volume of voice, attitude and so much more end up telling us from very early on whether we feel we are fundamentally safe or not” [48]. These warning bells go off when we are with people we think are “different” from us.

We prefer being safe. We prefer people who are like us…

Most of us never choose to get out of our safe zone [aka “comfort zone”].

Most of us just can’t handle it.

Not only do we not want to deal with people we are uncomfortable around, we find it hard to change our way of seeing the world. We like our habits. We like our routines. We like our boundaries for how we “see” things.

It is just common human behavior to cling to our individual perspectives. We all have experiences that shape us. We learn to categorize people due to those experiences. Our personality is formed by interactions with caregivers [parents?] and important others. Gender shapes us and society’s reaction to our gender. Race certainly makes a big difference in how we perceive and of course culture, our home culture, community culture, and national culture make a big impact.

All this results in a vision we have for the world.

This happens and it is neither good nor bad. It is just how life happens for all of us.
Here is when this process can get bad. When our limited perspective becomes the “only” perspective, when we forget how particular our vision of the world is, when we forget how naturally biased we are, when we forget that we are driven largely by our own self-interests. Labberton says it best: our point of view is never “neutral or comprehensive” but we trick ourselves into thinking it is.

Before we go any further, let’s not beat ourselves up. It is not necessary to do that. No one can understand the world in an “all-compassing” perspective. We don’t have the mental capacity to do that. To a certain extent our natural limiting of information helps us maintain sanity.

Where we fail [or rather I should say where I fail, I need to own this] is when I see opportunities to grow by understanding other peoples’ points of view and I turn my back on them.

Our context of this social psychological discussion is a book about helping our neighbors, so when we discuss our limited perspective, it can really get in the way of offering help.
How likely is an ordinary person to enter a strange culture where he or she may experience discomfort? How likely is an ordinary person to offer help to someone with a very different life experience? How likely is a middle or upper class person with their creature comforts going to forgo those and enter a setting where impoverished people exist?

Sadly, the answer for most of us is, we are not likely to do those things…

Would it not be better to look at interaction with other human beings as opportunities, no matter what their status in life? We can learn new things. We can discover new meanings. We can experience new openness in our lives and along the way, we may give someone else hope. Coincidentally, we may even find ourselves feeling better about ourselves because we helped someone, we may discover that getting out of our comfort zone is not that bad; the fears of difference are not that real . [I venture to say that feeling better, learning new things and diminishing fear are sidelights of this process].

And then we have “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and all your mind. This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

Oh yeah…

That too…

*from his book The Dangerous Act of Loving Your Neighbor

In 2006, I saw a popular movie starring Matthew McConaughey entitled “Failure to Launch.” McConaughey played a thirty-something young man who still lived at home with his parents and he had absolutely no interest in leaving their home. The premise of the movie revolved around his parent’s manipulations to get him out of the house. It was funny.

For most of us, getting started on life is not funny; it is hard work. For some it is a daunting task. Working a nine-to-five job for a long span of time can be overwhelming but that is the best way to get a home (which most of us want). Not only do we want a home but we also want a good job with medical benefits. We want other accommodations, good food, nice transportation, recreation. In the beginning, the novelty of getting started is thrilling, but very quickly we spend a lot of our time, effort, attention and money in the quest for more.

As we seek more, some people are glad to work forty hours but I have had some friends who work eighty-hour weeks. They have the idea that they will work as long as it takes to get the job done. They may want promotions or bonuses. Maybe they are big believers in the upward mobility ladder.

I had a friend at work who used the image of the merry-go-round a lot. That is what she felt about work, that it was a merry-go-round but upwardly mobile people don’t believe that. Instead of doing less, they do more.

I wanted a job. I wanted to teach. I wanted to teach college. I wanted a spouse. After accomplishing those goals, my wife and I wanted a child.

Like most of us, that brought concern for the future. I remember trying to secure my family’s future with an insurance policy. I wanted to be secure about life after work so I began investing in a 401K, so my son would not have to support me in my old age.
I never really felt poor.

My concerns about my life just did not go that way. Could they have gone that direction? Of course they could. Both my parents raised me to adulthood so I had a stable foundation. That’s not always the case for many. Education was a stable profession. If you worked at it and learned what is expected, it was not impossible to succeed. In my case, I already loved going to school so why would I not want to be a teacher?
I understood the classroom and I loved being in it to earn my living. And I was a successful teacher. I was blessed to teach thirty-six years and my wife was right along my side for thirty-one years as an elementary teacher and then seven as a tutor. She was a successful teacher too.

We were busy. We did not take time to think about other economic situations. The poor and downtrodden of society seemed so distant from our world. We did not have time to consider what to do for the poor. Actually we were so busy and focused on our own success that we barely considered helping those less fortunate.

Remember my colleague who used the merry-go-round image, well, my wife and I were on the merry-go-round of wanting more. Like many of us in this world, we measured our lives against what we did not yet have. We wanted new stuff, better stuff. The quest for “more” is a very normal life goal for the average American. It is just the way that life is for people who are blessed enough to be successful. Instead of finding folks in life who are getting along with less, we like to compare ourselves to others who have more and we want to be like them.

Should we feel guilty? I think the answer is no.

Should we be aware of the merry-go-round that we are on? I think the answer is yes.
There is a “movement” that has begun in our society that encourages people to live intentionally, paying attention to their choices, trying to raise awareness of how we all fit into society. If we are on a merry-go-round, at least be aware of it and maybe get off from time to time.

In the context of Pastor Labberton’s book , our quest for more gets in the way of helping others. For many of us, caught up in the quest for more, we are like “rubberneckers” on the highway. When we see poverty, “maybe we look, but then the momentum picks back up and we get on with where we are headed. We may not even remember we ever slowed down or saw anything that could keep us from the mall. And rubberneckers never help. They just slow things down and annoy everyone” [Labberton, 46].

You see, we are caught up in the quest. The pressure is on: just keep moving.

How about stopping, getting off and helping others less fortunate (from time to time)…

Novel idea, this intentional living movement.

Good for me.

Good for others.

It is hard to admit this but I waste water.

Do you?

When I brush my teeth at night, I run the water needlessly. When I shower, I spend extra time in there and sometimes I use our Jacuzzi tub which takes several gallons to fill up. I water the garden in the summer whether it needs it or not. I waste water washing the car, leaving the water on as I apply soap to the car when I should really turn it off. This is just a sampling of my wastefulness.

Like most of you, when I turn on the tap, clean water comes out.

I take it for granted.

You see I live on “this side of things.*” Access to clean water is not a problem.
People who live on “that side of things” don’t assume that the tap will always yield water. I can’t relate to this but for some people who are struggling, their day is consumed with two main activities. Where can I get water? Where can I get food?

Pastor Labberton says that the quest for food and water involves “lots of walking, standing, gathering, cutting, carrying, squatting, pounding, grinding, swatting, boiling and hopefully cooking.” Water especially is a problem because water is a commodity that often does not come to someone; you have to go where the water is. The real work is getting the water home after you get some. The main burden of water-gathering around the world falls on girls and women. They can spend hours each day retrieving water.
Human beings can survive twenty-one days without food [complete starvation] but we can only live for seven days without water. Our bodies are 60% water, our cells need water to live, our joints need water for lubrication and water helps us regulate our body temperature. We must have water.

I could focus on the lack of food, electricity, shelter, etc. All that is part of the life of a person struggling with poverty but water is not so common in a poor person’s life. If you are not poor, you don’t have trouble getting water. But can you imagine day and night, struggling to get it. There is worry and fear that you won’t have it, the pressure of an uncertain life. Whereas I have time to engage in hospitality, joy, and love, I don’t have to worry about the essentials of life. I can dream, I can laugh, I can give tenderness to others and receive tenderness. I am not struggling to find water.

For Christians, maybe we should not take water for granted. Our Bibles have several references to water. In fact it is not just water; it is “living water.” John 4: 14 says “but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.” John 7: 38 describes water as flowing “He who believes in Me, as the Scripture says, ‘From his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.'” Zechariah 14: 8-9 “And in that day living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the eastern sea and the other half toward the western sea; it will be in summer as well as in winter.” Jesus declares in the book of John: “If anyone is thirsty, let him come to Me and drink.”
As we think about the needs of the poor, it is all about essentials and nothing is more essential than water.

I sit here today planning what to do to show my spouse I love her tomorrow [Valentine’s Day]. Do I have the right gift? Where can I take her to eat a special meal? Can I do something special to entertain her?

What kind of Valentine’s Day would we have if the best gift I could give her was a bottle of water.

I can do better because I don’t live on “that” side of things; I live “this” side of things.
I should thank God that I can “do better” but I should never forget that there are people in our world who would love to have clean water. If they take care of that need, maybe they will have a chance to ponder their need for that other kind of water…
You know… “that living water.”

*Pastor Mark Labberton refers to the lifestyle of people who are not struggling as “this side” and the lifestyle of people who struggle as “that side.” The Dangerous Act of Loving Your Neighbor.

In this past month when we were experiencing a pretty extreme “cold snap” for the state of Kentucky, the heat on the ground floor of our home went out. We called for service but since we still had heat on the second floor, the servicemen took six days to get to us. They had to prioritize their customers. Elderly customers came first, people who had no heat in their home at all needed to come before us. I knew this and it made sense. We waited and waited for the serviceman, and after four days we called back just to get the secretary’s explanation “many people have lost their heat and they are working through their long list as soon as they can. They are working long hours right now.” I heard this information and I accepted it; it made sense. Still, I felt bad because it was so cold on the ground floor and it began to bother me more and more. There was so much I wanted to do down there and it was hard to do anything with a temp of fifty-five.

Wah! Wah!

Then the servicemen arrived and with some complex fixes, the heat came back on. The house started to warm up as the day continued. When I went to bed, I just prayed that the heater would stay on overnight. Next morning I awakened to a toasty ground floor. Thank you Jesus!

Going without heat made me pause.

What if I always struggled to stay warm?

Most of my life I have never had a problem with comfort. Pastor Labberton* calls people who have few problems with comfort, people who live on “this side of things.” That would be me. For most of my days here on earth, I have had good days; I live on “this side of things.”

There is a woman in my adult Sunday school class who told us one day that it was a major turning point in her life when she could go to the grocery store and not worry about paying for her food. That meant something to me; it made me think about how I have never had to worry about grocery shopping costs. Some people do.

A woman in my prayer group revealed that her water was shut off to her home. She lacked the money to pay the bill. I am so used to turning the tap and getting water any time I want it. It is clean, it is hot or cold as I want, I can shower in it and cook with it. What would it be to lose it? Some people don’t have this basic necessity.

A few years ago, our area of the world lost power due to a massive ice storm. So many electric lines were torn down that it took two weeks to get power restored. I recall that a lot of gasoline generators were sold. People could not survive without electricity. Most of the time, we don’t have to think about this. We flip the switch and it just comes on. If it goes off a couple of hours, many stop work because they are using a computer, televisions stop working and life as we know it is halted. But it will come on; the power company is quick about fixing an outage.

There is so much that we don’t worry about on “this side of things.” Shelter is taken for granted. We rarely have to worry about safety; we play, eat, work, study and worship without fear. Yes, on “this side of things” we rarely think about what we lack because most of us have the basics covered.

But let’s be honest, we still think about the basic needs but not like a poor person. People on “this side of things” think about wanting more. We may want cleaner water so we purchase water filtration systems. We don’t just want bread; we want the best whole grain loaf we can buy, organic please. If our home is a comfortable 1,500 square feet, we want 2,500 square feet [to store more of our stuff].

Ask my wife what happened after the heat went off in our home. Day after day, I got whiney. Every hour that it was cold downstairs I got fussier. I am not proud of this; in fact I am ashamed. Life got a little harder for a few days and I found myself struggling to maintain my positive attitude.

That is the irony of life on “this side of things.” We may have all the basics covered but that doesn’t matter. People who have it all can still have miserable lives. For a few days I let myself become miserable. We all know that life can be about the quest for bigger and better. A small car is not good enough, a small television is not adequate, a small lawnmower just won’t get the job done. We have to upsize.

The point of this post is that most of you reading this have all the basics “covered” just like me. Pick the top three basic needs you really want. Then imagine that life circumstances take those things away indefinitely, permanently removed from your life.

How would you feel?

Most of us can not imagine. We have never been without.

We have never had to define our lives by what we lack.

Yet some of our neighbors don’t live on “this side of things” and Christ calls on us to love them, try to understand them and try to help them.

A tall order… for those on us on “this side of things.”

*author of The Dangerous Act of Loving Your Neighbor

I thought it was going to be a normal day.

First- grader David caught the bus at his country home [eleven miles from the county seat of Marion, Ky.] The bus took me approximately fifteen miles to a little school in Tolu, Kentucky. I had a normal day all day and at the end of the day I got on my regular bus to take me back to my home. I got off the bus and walked to the front door of my home where I usually could find Mom awaiting my arrival.
That’s where normal ceased.

No one was at home.

Here I was, little kid all alone in the country with no close neighbors. Then it hit me. I wasn’t supposed to ride my normal bus but take a bus to Marion.

Dad and Mom were on a trip and that was their well-thought-out plan. The only problem was that little David was forgetful that day. I did my routine, when a change of routine was called for. I thought I knew the address where I was going but I didn’t. Route 6 Marion should have been 408 Belleville, where my Grandmother lived in town.
I did not handle this situation well; I went into panic mode. I remember crying uncontrollably, thinking I was lost and would never be found. Of course that was crazy. One neighbor was about a half-mile away and my “country” Grandfather and Grandmother were a half-mile in the other direction.

I finally came to my senses and walked to my Grandfather and Grandmother’s home, crying all the way.

I thought I knew my address but that day, I didn’t.

What is your address? That sounds like a crazy question but maybe it is not. As a first-grader, memorizing my address was a big deal. I could write it on “official papers”, I could tell it to adults who asked at school and if anyone needed to know how to get me home, I could tell them. It was a significant thing for a kid to remember.

As I am significantly older now, I have different thoughts about where my address is. By that I mean I think about being a part of the world. Now I am not just a resident of Hopkinsville Kentucky. I am a Kentuckian, a southerner, an American, a resident of the Western Hemisphere, a human being on the Planet Earth. Sounds silly doesn’t it? Think about it though; when I went to Alaska and saw examples of glacial melt, I pondered global warming. When I heard of hurricanes tearing through Houston and Florida, I thought of the trips I have made to both southern locations. When I read news of state budget cuts that may impact my former place of employment, I identify with Kentucky.

But what is my address?

Pastor Mark Labberton has his own story about his address in his book.* Instead of a story about a little lost kid, his story is about not getting involved in helping someone who needs help. You see, his point is a good one. If we look at ourselves as people who exist at specific locations and that is all, then the thought begins to creep into our minds “Why should I care about that person who has no heat down the street? It is not my problem.” “Why help those homeless people on a biting cold night? My home is warm and cozy.” “Those hurricane victims have lost it all but I don’t live on the coast. Sure glad I live inland.”

You get the point. Insularity leads to apathy, when we live in a world that needs help.
It is more than that. As Christians we are called to help others. Jesus does not intend for us to withdraw into our own private lives, ignoring the needs of those around us.
The transformed heart that we seek as Christians is not a heart that focuses only on self. I would ask that you meditate on Matthew 22: 37-38. It is not much of a stretch that the first verse is a dedication that we must have toward Jesus and the second verse is an extension toward others, our neighbors. Jesus does not intend us to hide our lights under bushels; He wants us to shine them, so others can see. Labberton writes “Now I lived in Christ in the world. That was my new address and it affected everything. It meant that the world was bigger and deeper, that things close at hand and far away mattered more. It meant that my life was no longer my own or simply about me. I was beginning the process of losing my life in order to find it.”

None of us wants to be lost [it truly is uncomfortable], but actually it is not the end of the world. The best thing about being lost is finding your way home. We all want a home. The bad thing is when home becomes a place to hide from those in the world who need our help. Jesus wants us to reach out to the world and have a positive impact. As He has loved us, He wants us to love others.

Walking to my “country” Grandfather and Grandmother’s home took a little effort but they consoled me, took me in for the night, fed me great food and put me in a warm bed. They helped me so much and to this day, I still remember them greeting me at the door. Maybe they weren’t Dad and Mom but they did just fine.

Their help was so appreciated.

Maybe if we help others, they will feel appreciation too. It is not necessary to get appreciation, but our efforts to help are necessary.

As Christians, it is our mission.

*The Dangerous Act Of Loving Your Neighbor

When [Jesus} came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, as was his custom. He stood up to read, and the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written:

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He has anointed me to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”

He rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Then he began to say to them, “Today this scripture has been fulfilled in your hearing” [from Luke, 4: 16-21].

The topic of this post causes me great anxiety. Everyone has heard of those folks who are called “holier- than-thou.” I don’t want to come across as one of those people. One of my favorite Christian websites defines “holier-than-thou” as when someone has adopted a particular lifestyle or been convicted about certain behaviors that are not necessarily shared by other Christians. That can lead to Christians beginning to think of themselves as better than those who differ from them.* For example, a Christian may think that watching professional football is something that should be condemned because some players have protested social injustice through kneeling during the National Anthem. I am not sure what is in the hearts of these football players but I have heard Christians say they are boycotting football due to this unpatriotic activity and a few have told me they are boycotting on Christian principles. Boycotting NFL football is wonderful if that is truly what you want to do. “Holier-than-thou” comes into play when the boycotting Christian declares their behavior is following our Lord and Savior and if you do not join them, you are lacking. Of course, a notion like this is not in the Bible. Another thing we know is that people who have this problem love to compare themselves to others when their behavior compares favorably to others in their social group; that way they can stand out as a true “Christian.”

I never forget the story of the woman who committed adultery in the Gospel of John. The Pharisees were ready to stone her to death [as was allowed under Jewish law] and Jesus intervened to say those famous words “He that is without sin among you, let him cast the first stone at her.” That stopped the ones who were going to stone her in their tracks. They dropped their stones and walked away; of course, they knew they were not sinless.
In the context of the book we are studying, let’s go back to the Bible, the verses from Luke that began this post. Unlike boycotting football, that declaration from Jesus applies to us all.

I often wonder about the state of Christianity today. For some people it is “cool” for everyone to know you have Jesus as your Savior but how does that translate into everyday action? Pastor Labberton states that he wonders if his book*** is a work of fiction. He declares that the real Christian has a transformed heart over time. Maybe one does not have a heart to help others in the beginning but what needs to happen over time? That “good news to the poor” is probably aid, not just “news”

What happens when many of us Christians turn to the Bible and start comparing ourselves to Jesus. We fall short. When we know we don’t have a strong personal relationship with Jesus, what do many of us do? We fake one. When we are sinning and we know it, do we confess our sins? Many of us don’t confess, we put up the façade that says “I got it all together.” Many of us are CINO’s [Christians in name only].
A Christian is called to grow in faith and progress to being more like Christ. This doesn’t always happen instantly. Christians struggle with temptation to sin. We are called to put on a new nature and allow the Holy Spirit to transform our lives. It is not hypocritical to fall. It is hypocritical to deny that you fell and pretend you were successful.
A Christian is called to live a life of compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. We should be learning to be intentional about letting God change our hearts.
We should admit our hypocrisy. We all are hypocrites in various areas of our lives. Pastor Labberton says it like this “If we say we love God and don’t love our neighbor, it turns out we don’t love God. In other words our faith is fiction.”

That is pretty harsh. Most of us don’t help those less fortunate in our lives when we know we should. That does not mean God won’t work on us and over time we will find a way to be more compassionate and active in helping the poor.

My cousin, who is a United Methodist pastor, posted this on her Facebook wall (maybe it is a warning that all Christians should hear when they commit their lives to Jesus). “If you think of becoming a Christian, I warn you, you’re embarking on something that will take a whole lot of you” [from C.S. Lewis].

At times you will feel like a hypocrite, at times you will feel like you are not doing enough but try anyhow: try to perceive a need, try to find the words to name a need and lastly try to act to fulfill a need. Maybe in our own small way we can say we have fulfilled a little of the Bible.

If you do a little of that, you are probably going to feel better about your life and maybe, just maybe, God will be satisfied that you are working toward a truly transformed heart.

*Got Questions.org

**maybe this is not the best example due to the fact that this is going to be posted on “Superbowl Sunday”

***The Dangerous Act of Loving Your Neighbor

At the funeral service of John Carter Allen* the pastor read a testimony from a father in our church. I remember what she read. This father’s son had spent some time with John Allen at Micah Mission Center and the experience changed the son. He began to realize there were poor, homeless people in this world, yes right in the midst of his hometown. Most importantly, he spent time with a Christian man who had the heart to help the poor and that attitude made an impression, a very positive impression.

Pastor Mark Labberton has a section of his work called “On Reading This Book.” In that section, he states the purpose of his book: he wants us to perceive, name and act.

Maybe I am neurotic but I often question “Why me?” “Why now?” I feel God has a plan for all of us, we are not just here on earth for no reason. Maybe Labberton explains the reason for every Christian’s life: we are made to worship. By worship he means that we are supposed to live the life God intended us to live. God sent his son Jesus to instruct us. “[Worship] refers to the life-encompassing act of waking up to God in Christ by the Spirit with our whole being, living in communion with others who are doing likewise, and letting it show in the midst of the world for which such wakeful worship is to be a daily taste of the kingdom of love and justice.”

Labberton describes Christ as “self-emptying” and to be that way is a slow process, an effort to transform our hearts. But it is worth the effort because our presence in the world can change the world “if we had hearts that were more like God’s”[Labberton, 28].

But of course this is hard because so many of us are the reverse of self-emptying; we are self-centered. Too often the clarion call is “what’s in it for me?” When we could offer help, the caustic response is “What have you done for me lately?” Too many of us “keep book”; if we act to help others it is because others have helped us and we are doing payback.

That is just not the life God intended for us to live but so many people operate with those “rules.”

That is the way they live, not exactly self-emptying.

Recall the title of Labberton’s book, The Dangerous Act of Loving Your Neighbor; what is endangered by living a life inspired by Jesus Christ? What is endangered is our selfish absorption. The more we gain the heart of Jesus, the less we think about ourselves. The less we think about ourselves, the more we can begin to see those in need right around us. Rather than distance ourselves from those in need, we begin to act to fulfill their needs. “This is the worship God seeks. It reflects the God whose heart sends you and me to be the personal evidence of God’s love in a world of suffering” [Labberton, 28].

It was my pleasure to spend many years with John Carter Allen as my friend and I will be honest, I never quite understood why he did some of the things he did. He did not worry about his appearance. He was a “slow-moving dude”. Eating across from him during many meals I warned him of food that lingered in his bushy gray beard. When he was at Micah, John was a soft touch when it came to cigarettes. The homeless people there were always bumming his smokes. He did not care, saying “he always got them back” [he didn’t]. The thing that always amazed me about John was his effortless connection with people who had less than he had. He could talk one-to-one with the needy people who were at Micah. He was comfortable in their presence. He never put “distance” between himself and them. When they conversed, he cared about what they were saying; at times they seemed to speak the same language.

While John was alive, maybe I took his life for granted. Now he is gone and maybe I am beginning to see why he dedicated so much time to help those who were struggling; maybe he had a transformed heart, maybe he was emptying himself, following the example of Jesus. Maybe John’s example not only made an impression of that young man in our church; maybe it made an impression on me.

Labberton writes of the believer and skeptic who are reading his book. “So your point is that if we were more like God and less like ourselves, the world would be a better place?”

Yes, that is the purpose of his book, to perceive the needs of others, name the needs of others and act to fulfill the needs of others.

To live more like Jesus Christ.

*John Carter Allen was the founding director at Micah Mission Center and even though other directors were appointed after John’s tenue, he continued to volunteer at the center. John passed away on December 2nd, 2017.

I have been a listener in far too many of these conversations.

“Poor people deserve what they are getting; they have brought their situation on themselves.”

“Poor people would be ok if they would just get a job. They are just lazy.”

“Poor people like being on government benefits; they don’t want to work. They enjoy getting a handout.”

My problem is that I have not challenged these statements. I just let them ride. It is too embarrassing to call out my Christian brothers and sisters. Yes, you read that right: “my Christian brothers and sisters.” Sadly, I hang out with Christians who say such things.
People who struggle with poverty are all around us. They live their lives right next to us and the prosperity the rest of us feel in this era of sky high market returns, they aren’t feeling. In America today, 40 million people are below the poverty line and millions more are living just above it. If they are laid off for a long period of time, they slide down to poverty. A major car breakdown can lead to firing and firing can lead to poverty.

What’s my problem?

The longer I have lived, the more privileged I have become. I don’t know what it is to want and not be able to get what I want. When I need food, I just go to the grocery and charge the food on a card, you know, one of those cards that save me fuel points. I know I can pay the bill. I have a debit card and it never gets declined. I don’t buy hugely expensive items but I have never had anyone say “you don’t have the money in the bank.”

In my adult Sunday school class this past Sunday, a woman was there who dedicates a lot of her time to helping the poor at a local Methodist mission center. She described a woman who came in. This lady said “you better stay away from me, I have bed bugs all over my body.” She needed a shower. She had not eaten a good meal in a while. She even shared that she did not have any of the female necessities that she needed.

I listened to the description of her situation and all I thought of is how I could not relate to her situation.

I did feel compassion for her. It never crossed my mind to blame her for her problems or castigate her for not having a job at McDonalds. I did not consider this stranger an abuser of government benefits; I did not feel a desire to tell her about getting on the welfare rolls.

I did feel compassion.

I have a long way to go. My heart may be headed in the right direction but I know I am not where I need to be. There is an old expression I hear in Christian circles: “ I ain’t where I want to be but I am better than where I was.” Maybe I can take some solace in the fact that the human heart is hard to change. I have been raised to believe if you work hard and sacrifice then you have a chance to succeed. I have lived that experience. I am not a mega-wealthy person but I did not find doors slammed when I wanted to enter college. Once I got my degree, I figured out how to market myself and getting that first job was not impossible. I had a profession that was stable, not prone to rapid changes, downsizing or being shipped overseas. As long as I wanted to work and make a wage, I could do that.

That experience I have had is not the experience that many have and the longer I have lived as an employed person, the more I have benefited from the privileges of American society. Pastor Mark Labberton says “The privilege of my life can move me in the opposite direction from following Jesus’ self-emptying example.” He extends this idea of privilege to the church. The church can be so aligned with power and its privilege that it can be more tuned into power and privilege than the opposite. Those who have no power and no privilege get lost in the shuffle.

When Christians cast aspersions on the poor, I don’t join in. I feel compassion. My problem is I don’t do anything. Maybe in the past I would join in and share my own negative, stereotypical thoughts. Maybe my heart has been transformed a little.
When I take action to help the poor, that may be a sign I have really made progress. Maybe I can’t help 40 million or even 10 but maybe I can help one person. When that day comes, maybe I can tell myself that I am beginning to learn the true meaning of the greatest commandment, you know that part about loving your neighbor as yourself.

“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Too often in the minds of many Christians, having the experience of being born again is it. Once they accept Jesus and proclaim Him as their Savior, they feel cleansed of their sins, they accept His forgiveness and are ready to move forward into life, a new person.
For many it stops right there and that is so sad because it should not stop there.

Being born again is just the beginning of a lifelong transformation.

Twenty-two years ago I had a born again experience. I have written about it before, the tearful admission of my sins, the cleansing experience and the hunger for God’s Word, the serious search for answers. All this happened in the midst of one of the worst chapters in my life, when I was so low that I had to have help. The despair was only relieved by God. Thank God, I asked Him for help instead of trying to work through my problems on my own. He helped and he sent legions of Christians to help and I eventually made it to a better place.

Was I cleaned up and ready to go?

No, I was not.

Some of the same serious sins I had committed before my confession I still committed. I also was very focused on myself. I remember a good friend explaining to me that after giving your life to Christ, life is all about choices. I recall examining my choices for the first time in my life, even small choices. “What was the best thing to do?” I would ask myself all day long.

Sadly, this process was all about me—self-centered. My examination was pretty self-centered.

Mark Labberton’s book* calls all of us to a much more other-centered Christian life. “We live in a world where the human heart is bent in on itself; external, public and systemic structures must be brought in service of the most vulnerable.” When I found Jesus, I could not see further than the nose on my face.

Labberton calls us out and says that in our “complicated world of profound injustice, the crisis of the human heart is crucial to social transformation. Changing our world depends on changing our hearts, how we perceive, name and act in the world” [Labberton, 23].

It is not an overnight phenomenon. It takes time to become more tuned into the needs of others, especially those who have much less than we do, you know the people we don’t run around with in our little social clique. To be honest, if we are leading a self-centered life, we don’t notice others much; we are too concerned about ourselves. We need to name others who have needs and if we don’t perceive them, we certainly don’t name them. Last but not least, we need to act. We need to engage others and offer assistance, assistance that fulfills some of their needs. That is a true commitment.

It is all about loving the Lord with all your heart, with all your soul and strength and all your mind and this extends to loving your neighbor as yourself.

It is the difference between the private Christian life and the public Christian life for many of us. I believe that God wants us to be consistent in our approach to life. God tells us to be of assistance to those who suffer; therefore we should offer assistance to those who suffer. “The human heart that must be made new so that the world might be made new. People suffer daily around the world because human hearts are unchanged. The practical and tragic consequences continue endlessly [Labberton, 24].

Truly the change of heart is dramatic; when one is born again, the world begins to take on a very different perspective. If we are working to make the change, we may actually impede the process of transformation. If we allow God to do the work, eventually God will make a comprehensive change. You see, the “underneath systems and structures, laws and habits” must change. This is a personal transformation that occurs over time and it is reflected in the choices we make. We discover our vocation in the needs of others, rather than our own personal needs.

Labberton says that real transformation is possible and “The litmus test is not how we respond to those who love us, but how we respond to the poor and needy and, even beyond that, to our enemies” [ 25].

“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”

Verily, verily allow God to change your heart, to make you into a person who meets the needs of the less fortunate, to perceive the needy, name the needy and act to help the needy.

*The Dangerous Act of Loving Your Neighbor