Pilgrimage Ponderings
Being, Doing, and a Prophetic Word
This morning in Sunday school we got into a discussion about care for street people. The discussion involved our motivations for helping people, what real help is for someone who seems to be unable to support themselves, and people who solicit help for the "wrong" reasons, such as to support a drug habit, and what our Christian responsibility is toward them. It was a good discussion that gives me a lot to think about.
What we really didn't talk about directly was the feelings that go along with all of this. Clearly, I get a little angry when I feel like someone is trying to get something from me, especially if I don't think they deserve it. I'm thinking primarily of telephone solicitors of all sorts and how I react to them in a pretty visceral way. I mostly don't care if what they are supporting is a good cause. I'm just irked that they are trying to make me do something that wasn't initiated by me.
And I think that sometimes I have the same sort of reaction when someone comes to the church and asks for a handout. I wonder if they really need it or if they are just trying to get something from good church people.
Then, during worship, I heard a sermon on Jesus driving the money changers out of the temple. The question arose as to what "the angry young man Jesus" would have to say to good church folk today. What habits and familiar ways of doing church would he be upset about in our day? And how ought we to respond? The preacher said that Jesus in this story stood in line with the prophets when he called the people back to faithfulness.
Somehow, I started connecting pieces from Sunday school with the idea of Jesus being angry. I did not want to connect the idea of being angry with people who ask for money on the street to Jesus.
Then I started thinking about a blog I read this morning that talked about a shift in the American church's perspective in the 20th century. I know which blogger wrote it, although I can't find the post right now. You can look for it here: http://doroteos2.wordpress.com/. The blog said something about Christianity once upon a time being focused on right behavior, but we in America have gotten focused on having right thinking about other people's behavior. I'm not sure I got it quite right. But here's where I ended up.
Jesus was angry in the temple because the system of the religious institution and the behavior of religious people had begun to interfere with the capacity for ordinary people to relate to God. The prophets mostly express the anger of God at the religious people, not because of what they think and say, but because what they do does not match what they say they think.
So I am feeling convicted that I need to spend more time reflecting on how I can make what I do match what I say and think than on making judgements about what other people think.
I think today I am pondering as I write, sort of thinking out loud.
DogBlogger: Thought-provoking. Convicting. Thanks. (03/16/09)