St. John Studies

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

Before we get too far into Pastor Mark Labberton’s book The Dangerous Act of Loving Your Neighbor, we need to talk about the “big tent.”

Sometimes Christians think their view is the majority view in the faith, especially those Christians who belong to smaller churches where shared worldviews are very similar. But there is a problem with that; the Christian faith is a diverse collection of people with different perspectives on how life should be approached.

Everyone knows that America is a “divided” country, with people who have conservative views and people who have liberal views. The divide between the groups seems greater than ever. Nancy Gibbs writes in Time Magazine that we “have deserted the common ground.” She states the obvious: “Civil discourse suffers from the echo…and the chamber which walls us off from diverse opinion, from ideas that might disturb us in healthy ways.” Americans don’t bother to sample diverse news sources. Maybe that is due to our frantic lifestyles so we settle for a cable news snippet, a Facebook post, or a political writer on a website that makes us cozy and we stop right there. We just don’t have time to explore others’ opinions; it is so easy to stop the thinking process and call differing folks bad names.

But how does the Christian handle big topics like social injustice? Do we ignore people who suffer from the ills of our society or do we find a way to address the problem. The Methodist Church is a “big tent” church. Ok, here is an example. Hillary Clinton is a Methodist. George W. Bush is a Methodist too. People who like to label themselves as progressives also claim Christianity as their faith. People who support socially conservative policies claim Christianity as their faith too.

Laying all our differences aside, my Bible teaches me that my God is a God of justice. In fact, in Deuteronomy 32:4 it says “all His ways are justice.” The Bible supports the idea that Christians should be concerned for the plight of the poor and afflicted. It refers to the fatherless and the widow; that is people who struggle to fend for themselves because they need a support system. The entire nation of Israel was commanded by God to care for society’s less fortunate and their failure to do so led to their judgement and expulsion from the land. Jesus says we are to care for the “least of these” (Matthew 25:40). He truly meant that we as Christians should care for the outcasts of society.

Back to that Methodist “big tent.” Methodist historians point to John Wesley and his efforts to visit those in prison. After visiting prisoners, he had a tireless dedication for prison reform. English prisons in the Eighteenth Century were horrid and prisoners truly suffered. Certainly Wesley was a tireless preacher who spent his whole life trying to aid the downtrodden.

Where do Christians get it wrong?

Some Christians have a mistaken idea about economics. There have always been people who have more than others and just because there is inequality of income does not mean the wealthier people of society are inherently evil. They have not necessarily taken advantage of those less fortunate to get their wealth. Some Christians feel social programs are the way to help those less fortunate but often those social programs can create serious problems. For example, some deserving people become complacent in life after receiving benefits and they are no longer interested in seeking employment; they are content to live on whatever the social program is willing to give them.

Some Christians are mistaken and turn their eyes from people in need. They might not feel compelled to help those less fortunate [I have heard too many Christians say things like “those people are just abusing welfare dollars and boy oh boy have you seen what they buy with their food stamps at the grocery”].

As Christians, we cannot turn our eyes from people who are suffering. We are compelled to find a way to aid those who struggle. Surely we have to admit there is tension between a Christian who feels government is the only answer and wealthy people who have accumulated their wealth by exploiting the poor. They are directly opposed to the Christian who is suspicious of “government handouts” and thinks that government benefits should be tied to employment.

Let’s go back to that “big tent.” My God erected that tent and my God says we must find a way to help people who are suffering. When we begin our political debates over assisting those less fortunate we are taking a man-centered approach to social justice. We have deserted the common ground we should have a Christians. If it is giving money directly to a poor person or blessing your favorite charity with a donation, that is good. If it is inviting a neighbor over to have a hot meal when the neighbor is struggling, that is good. If it is investing some time and effort to distribute food to the hungry, that is good. A God-centered approach to love and justice is to show kindness and mercy to those less fortunate.

I suspect that my God, who erected that big tent, has something in common with you.

He’s your God too.

When one is discussing a book with the title The Dangerous Act of Loving Your Neighbor, it goes without saying that the book is probably going to deal with people who are downtrodden, people who have serious needs.

How do people become downtrodden? The pathways to that type of life are as varied as all the humans on the face of the earth. Some find themselves in dire straits due to their own choices, but that is not always the case. Some find themselves the victims of injustice; they suffer due to the injustice of others in power.

That is a tough word…injustice. As a Christian, where do I fit in the picture when my neighbor is the victim of injustice? What should I do? God has total control of our world so why do I have to do anything to correct wrongs that our society has put upon my neighbor? What does the Bible say about correcting societal wrongs?

Well it turns out that there is a lot in the Bible about injustice. The writer of Proverbs says “The Lord detests differing weights, and dishonest scales do not please Him.” As I write this, I am serving jury duty and when I go to the Criminal Justice Center in my community I see a large sculpture of lady justice [Fermida], an allegorical personification of the moral force in judicial systems. Her attributes are a blindfold, a balance, and a sword. Of course the blindfold personifies impartiality, the scales mean that she responds to the weight of arguments pro and con and the sword represents authority. The whole sculpture is to say that individuals who encounter our American justice system are supposed to get a “fair shake.”

But we all know that our worldly justice system can have its flaws.

Isaiah 59: 14-15 says “Learn to do right; seek justice. Defend the oppressed. Take up the cause of the fatherless; plead the case of the widow.” God even says that the Israelites were to “loose the chains of injustice.” All this was written in a time when Judah was struggling under the weight of injustice.

Since Pastor Labberton has written so much about the human heart, it is important to acknowledge that humans do unjust things all the time. We show partiality, we judge others and we just sometimes lack the love God would like for us to exhibit. We exhibit incongruent behaviors. When we make mistakes, we are quick to point out the reasons and we expect others to quickly forgive us. We are not that charitable to others, accusing them of grievous errors and holding them up to harsh judgement. Maybe that is due to the fact that we are mere humans, all falling short of the glory of God.

Maybe the only way to escape injustice is to accept the fact that we are inherently unjust. We are all sinners due to “the fall” so we have no right to claim that we are purveyors of justice in our everyday lives.

What is wrong is to act like injustice does not occur. As Christians, we can turn our backs and say “let God take care of it,” but this flies in the face of God’s idea about social justice. He expects us to care for the poor in an individual way. Each of us is challenged to do what we can to help the “least of these.”

A further challenge is to work through the political system to right some of the wrongs we encounter in life. It seems to me that Christians can lose their way when they are pawns in the games that politicians play, where individuals can get lost in a tangle of policies having to do with political, economic or civil rights. The American Declaration of Independence entitles us to certain inalienable rights but like the criminal justice system mentioned above, our system of democracy has it flaws.

We all turn on our televisions and watch political leaders grapple with large-scale problems but are we to join them in the fray to right society’s wrongs? We can try as long as we realize there is a difference between a God-centered approach to social justice and a man-centered approach to social justice.

Sometimes I supplement the comments I make on certain books with information from Christian-based websites and one of my favorites is Got Questions.org. The author of the article on “What the Bible says about Social Justice” writes “The man-centered approach sees government in the role of savior, bringing in a utopia through government policies. The God-centered approach sees Christ as Savior, bringing heaven to earth when He returns. At His return, Christ will restore all things and execute perfect justice. Until then, Christians express God’s love and justice by showing kindness and mercy to those less fortunate.”

We can all relinquish our responsibility to help those who have suffered injustice to the criminal justice system and let politicians correct the wrongs we see in life. After all, they are in charge of implementing policies that can help large numbers.

I wonder about that attitude. Sometimes correcting injustice is a very personal matter. I may not be able to affect the economic system on a large scale, I can’t give powerless people political power and make serious adjustments to our class system but I can be the heart and hands of God as I help my neighbor in ways that are tangible. When I see need and have the means to help, I can give. When I see a lack of information and I have the information that others need, I can share. When I see someone who just needs love and acceptance, I can give that.

I believe that God expects that of me: “love your neighbor as yourself.”

So far, Mark Labberton’s book has declared that the heart is central to a Christian life. If a person is to change and help another [a neighbor], it will require a change of heart for most of us.

Social influences have an impact on all of us; for example, the latest news about Amazon founder Jeff Bezos who recently got the title “richest man on the earth.” The most recent tally has his net worth at 108 billion dollars. We are constantly bombarded by commercials that tempt us to improve our lives by buying luxury products we cannot afford. Just plunk down 80 K for that bright orange Corvette and everything will be ok. I don’t know how many episodes of HGTV I have seen where a young couple decides to go to the bank and borrow a half-million dollars for their “starter” home.

Society provides endless examples of pressure to consume. We see others with ostentatious displays of wealth and we feel we must strive for some level of luxury beyond what we currently have.

Does society provide examples of the need to help our neighbors?

Maybe not so much…

Growing up, I was a super picky eater. I was always a scrawny kid. There were more things I hated to eat than things I liked to eat. My poor desperate mother was beside herself trying to get me to eat anything. At times it appeared I was wasting away. Like so many mothers, she employed that time-worn strategy of guilt. Probably every mom has told their kid “eat your broccoli; think about those starving kids in China.” I remember thinking to myself “Well please take it and ship it to those starving kids; I don’t want it.”

If we succumb to societal pressure to be greedy and self-centered, a counteracting force to combat that is not guilt. Pastor Labberton encourages us to examine our lives and if we see someone who has a need, help them [it’s the Christian thing to do]. However, if we are not geared that way, he does not intend to make us feel compelled to help others due to guilt. “When guilt is the primary outcome sought, it can come close to killing our hearts than transforming them.” Labberton realizes that transformation of the heart is the only way one can learn the ways of the loving neighbor.

Sadly, most of us like stability. This may sound strange but if I have a stingy, selfish nature and I have had it for a long time, I probably want to cling to that because I am so used to my “lifestyle.” To suddenly become generous, helpful and centered on the needs of others will require a major change of heart. In essence, our hearts become hardened due to the habit of living life a certain way. One can turn to Genesis to read the story of one of the most hardened hearts in Biblical history, that Pharaoh who just would not let Moses and the Israelites go. We tend to be like Pharaoh; when we want to change, it is too hard. We revert back to our old ways despite our best intentions.

What is needed?

Pastor Labberton says it takes power, grace and wisdom of the Spirit of Jesus Christ.

It takes self-examination.

It takes time.

It takes forgiveness of others and forgiveness of the self, because attempting to change will be fraught with difficulty. Like any change, there will be more failed efforts than successful efforts. People around you will see your failure and sometimes they will judge. Some of your peers will not want to see change because they have developed habits of seeing your normal behavior and they don’t want to deal with the “new you.” Some may see an unselfish, generous friend as a challenge. They don’t want to compete with a “goody two shoes.” The most difficult task is self-forgiveness, for you may be upset that your efforts are falling short.

Romans 3 offers the hope that you need, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God”. But we know God has extended His grace to us through His Son Jesus Christ. We are justified through our faith in Jesus. We can overcome our sin with God’s help. Yes, our hearts can be changed through the grace of God.

We don’t need to have guilt as our change agent. Maybe you are not where you think you are supposed to be right now. But where you are today may not be where you will be in the future. The Bible is full of people of limited ability and God used them to do wonderful work. He can do that for you.

And He can do that for me.

It is such a cliché.

It is a new year and in a new year, people resolve to make changes.

I hate to admit this, but maybe I have fallen prey to this type of thinking. Yesterday I set a “benchmark” for my health. I weighed, I took my blood pressure and got my heart rate: 67 beats per minute.

The human heart is a big deal. My 67 beats are important. Pastor Mark Labberton says we use the word heart “about something that seems so central to our life: intimate, powerful, emotional, vulnerable, defining. Whatever we are and whatever we are seeing and doing, our hearts respond to and shape what happens” [Labberton, 19].

It is a metaphor. When someone says that a person has a big heart, we don’t take that literally. When someone says that their heart is broken, we don’t think that anything is really broken. A worker who puts their heart into their work is not really taking an organ out of their body and doing anything with it.

The heart is indeed an organ that is central to everyone’s life and heart is a word we use to describe something that is important to us, a way of discussing what we see and what we feel. Heart can describe how we respond to life.

We may think that our hearts are personal just to us and of course they are, but Christians should consider that our hearts are of immense interest to God. The Bible says our hearts have been made to love God and one need not look any further that the oft-quoted Scripture of Mark 12: 30-31 for confirmation of that. Many read these verses and focus on the heart that is made to love God, but the words have a dual focus: we are to love our neighbors. That flows from our love of God.

How can a guy like me love my neighbor? I am a Caucasian from Western Kentucky, product of a father who was a school teacher and mother who worked various office jobs over the years. By any measurement, I had very loving parents. I lived on a small farm, eleven miles from a small town of three thousand people. I loved going to school; that was an environment where I felt at home so it was natural for me to go to college. I loved English and history and majored in those subjects. The college I attended was mostly Caucasian but there was some diversity. I encountered other viewpoints in my educational experience as I studied with students who were not from my race and ethnicity. I took a full-time job as a college teacher at a community college where I was asked to teach speech communication. I went back to college to take course work and felt so fascinated by this new discipline that I eventually attended the largest university in my state, where I got a Ph.D. in speech communication. I could have taught at other colleges with my new degree but I did not want to. I felt that teaching was my strength, not research, and I liked the part of the country where I was located.

I tell you all this to illustrate where I come from in my life. My “heart” is the heart of someone who lives a pretty privileged life. I have never been poor, I have always been busy in my life with mentally challenging work and I have always had professional associations that were for the most part pleasant.

This is the way I have seen life. Some would say this is how my heart was constructed. It is my viewpoint. The social system that has surrounded me for most of my life has built my heart. I guess I should not feel bad about it. Things could have turned out differently but they didn’t. We are all social beings and as we live life, what we encounter and how we respond to life constitutes our makeup. Pastor Labberton says “we think our hearts are just our own construction. But our hearts are shaped by the cultural and social assumptions around and within them. We hold all of this in our hearts, and our hearts reflect both our own story and our collected stories.”

With this as our foundation, what do we do with our life experience? Do we wall off others we encounter who have lived a life that is very different from us? Do we shrink from opportunities to help others because they are so different from us? Do we denigrate others who have a wholly different life experience from us, casting judgement on them, putting them down and building ourselves up?

It is a choice we have to make. We can try to reinvent ourselves but probably most people don’t really try to do that. Most of us just respond to life as we have lived life, how life has “constructed us.”

Pastor Labberton sprinkles personal stories into his book and he recounts a moment when he read a story to his son about Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on a donkey. His son’s response to the story was so wonderful, a moment that a parent clings to: he said “Daddy, Jesus is in my heart.”

I know my heart beat 67 beats per minute yesterday and for that I am thankful, but what am I going to do with my life? Am I going to resist loving my neighbors, am I going to express prejudice, am I going to live a life of total self-absorption? I hope not, for Jesus expects me to do more with my life than that.

I am to love Him with all my heart and love my neighbor as myself.