Why is it that the church only seems to stand against things? I got to thinking the other day how I can't remember the last time that the collective church rose up in Canada to stand for, instead of against something.
We speak of a God of love, justice, a God who cares for His creation, a God of second chances, mercy, grace, forgiveness, but we as the church, more often than not, condemn. I'm tired of the excuse that Jesus stood for truth and expects us to do the same. It's a crutch we are using and the way that we are implementing that command is a joke and an insult to Jesus Christ.
I'm for standing for truth, but part of standing for truth means that we stand for the pro-active heart of Christ and not just the reactive. Why are we not working to alleviate poverty as a church, or hunger, or any other huge problem in the world today? We have a world that is passionate about the environment. Well, we were charged with taking care of the earth as christians. What an opportunity to share Christ with the world. We live in a world where advocacy is in style. As followers of christ, were we not called to bring hope to those who are hopeless, to liberate the oppressed? Were we not called to these things?
I dream of the day that we stop calling implementing those things the "selling" of Christ. It's not selling Christ by meeting the world, it's the truth of who Jesus is and has been, from Old Testament to New, and when we finally start doing these things, we will have influence and our opinion will no longer be judgmental, but respected.
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I have also wondered this.
ReplyDeleteHave you ever noticed that people in the church generally only stand against sins or ideas that they are not likely of falling into themselves? I mean, what does you average Christian activist stand on the street corner protesting these days? Abortion, Gays, Evolution/Darwinism once in a while. Have you ever seen anyone waving a placard that said, "I am against greed" or, "Down with selfish ambition!" or how about, "We need less dissension in our society"? Yet in Galatians 5 when Paul lists the acts of the sinful nature those things are right in there with murder and fornication.
Furthermore, I have yet to see anyone standing with a sign that said, "My God is pleased when we help the poor" or, "My religion teaches that you should befriend the outcasts".
Sometimes I just feel like giving people a shake and telling them to put their money where their mouths are.