36 million people starve to death each year. Meanwhile, 300 million adults are obese.
1 billion people are so poor that their lives are in danger. Meanwhile, the global economy is worth $46 trillion dollars.
There are 8.6 million refugees, and 21 million “people of concern”. Meanwhile, the UN has received only 4% of the money it needs for 15 world crisis.
28 million children die from easily curable diseases each year. Meanwhile, the church is the biggest financial power, wealth accumulator, and property owner in existence.
I wonder: would Jesus be ashamed of us? After 2000 years we have done little to change the world. Jesus said people would know we are his disciples if we love one another (John 13:35) yet people post bumper stickers begging “Jesus, save me from your followers”. We are called to be like Christ, yet Ghandi spoke: “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. They are so unlike your Christ.”
I remember walking through the city one night around a great, impressive Church. Inside the choir was practising but what shocked me is that they had forgotten the homeless person left sleeping on their steps. I was moved to pen this:
Under the Steeple
Of the old, stone Cathedral
Lies man with no cradle
Bar the cold, hard, steel rail
And under that Steeple
Of the wise, holy People
The sound of the faithful
Rips the dark night’s new veil
Yet under this Steeple
Of the great, powerful Symbol
The hungry man will wail
For some food, love, or ladle
For under this Steeple
Of the old, stone Cathedral
The folk of the temple
Are too busy, yet idle
Cos’ no one is faithful
To the man with no cradle
Hoping peace will prevail
Laying under their Steeple
I latter tried to find this man and show him that Christians are more than good singers but was never able to.
I am a Christian because I believe God is guilty of scandalous and unfair grace. I believe he loved a broken world and a broken people so much he came and died for us. I believe ‘love’ is a verb – an action word. I believe God loves us so much, even though we were so wicked, that he moved heaven and earth to show just how much he cares. I believe that if God can love me, than he can love anyone.
In this world everyone is trying to do what is best for them. Three people feast on more than they can eat whilst another seven are permanently hungry. I believe there is enough food for all ten. I believe that God did not make the mistake of putting more people on this Earth than it can support but rather that there is enough for everyone’s need, but not everyone’s greed.
I believe greed is unsatisfying. No matter how much one acquires there is always more to acquire. I believe there must be a better way. Jesus showed us that way. He did not seek what is best for himself but rather placed other’s first. I believe that love is a choice to place other’s before you. In this way I believe that God’s kingdom is countercultural. I would rather a shack on the rock than a castle built on sand.
I believe that Christ did not die to get a rabble into heaven but rather to create a Church that would revolutionize society. I believe he came to plant a Church which the Gates of Hell will not prevail against (Mathew 16:18). Gates are defensive fortifications, thus I believe the Church is called to be offensive – to storm the gates of sin, pain, shame, anger, and greed in this world and to change it through contagious love.
God’s plan to save us from our sin is to teach us to love. I believe love hurts. I believe that love costs. I know that the only way to undo the damage done by a self-serving culture is to become part of an other-serving culture. I believe that God loves homosexuals, immigrants, criminals, porn stars, the hungry, orphans, widows, the handicapped, the lonely, the unloved, the depressed, and the abused. And I believe that God loves me. I wonder that if God, who is infinitely huge, can love them than who am I not to?
I am a fraud. I live in comfort whilst others are uncomfortable. I eat my fill whilst others starve. I walk past people in poverty with my pay check in my pocket. But love is an action word. And love is hard. And love is costly. But love will save the world. And love has saved me.
I long for a church that reminds the world what it is to live in community. I long for more than programs on Sunday morning. I long for us to see the pain around us and ask ourselves “what does it mean to be Christian?”
I believe another world is possible. If we humble ourselves and remember that whilst we were still wretched Christ died for us than maybe we could be motivated to show that same love for other wretches. I believe that as we place others before ourselves we will infect the world one person at a time and take it over with our love. I know we won’t get it right till after we are dead, but I believe it is worth the try.
I believe we are in this world, but not of it. I think we must somehow balance the requirements of living in a corrupt world with the values of our true home. I believe God has given us the Holy Sprit and each other to help guide us on this type rope walk. I believe Christianity is not a destination. We don’t simply become saved and then exist as the end point of the gospel. I believe Christianity is a journey of imaginative, deeply expressed, and aggressive love.
Another world is possible. Another world begins in each of us.
