I've
heard it thousands of times, and most likely so have you, Jesus told
his disciples to “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the
Holy Spirit,” (Matt 28:19) In the scriptures for today, He said,
“The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore ask
the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.”
(Matthew 9:37-38) Many times in the bible Jesus gave the directive to
go and preach. His apostles in the epistles admonished others to do
this as well. I remember as a child, being told that this directive
now applied to me. It seemed easy to me at the time, but as I have
gotten older I have struggled to try to come to an understanding of
what it means. And I've found the more I study and try to learn, the
more I become humbled by the amount of things I don't know and
understand. We know as Christians that we are called to share the
gospel, but just how are we to do it?
There
is no simple one-size-fits all answer. We may sing hymns about how we
are one in the spirit, but in truth, sometimes we forget that. Our
communities are a diverse amalgamation of people with unique
identities, histories, and values. Too often it's all to easy to get
caught up in an us verses them mentality. Who them is changes.
Sometimes it's by race. Friends of mine who recently bought a house,
were told by the realtor that off the record, their house was in the
black neighborhood, because he thought they looked like nice girls.
We can be divided by religion. Not just in Christian vs. Non, but
even among Christians. We can be obsessed with “my Jesus vs. your
Jesus” and forget that we revere the very same Jesus. There's
wealth or lack thereof, age, disabled or abled, single, married, or
divorced, children in wedlock vs. children out of wedlock, people
with children, people without, two parent homes and single mothers.
People who have lots of kids are the sadly often the butt of jokes
about contraception. There's Fat vs fit, woman vs. man, and of course
sexual orientation and gender identity. The list is endless. Most
recently there was the election. Here in Ohio it was a barrage of
phone calls, e-mails, and mail about which guy was the right guy and
how the other guy would send us to hell in a handbasket. Even when I
assured my party that I was voting for their candidate, I still got a
barrage of communications from my party reminding me why our guy was
better than the other guy and why I needed to make sure I voted. This
is the way of elections and I do not imagine it will change soon, if
ever, but such divisiveness pulls us apart and can make us wonder how
the other side can be so “ignorant.” The thing is, instead of
worrying about how wrong the other side is, we need to recognize we
are all a part of the same community and we need to focus on the
collective whole, not our differences.
In his
letter to the Ephesians (2:14-22) Paul tells them that they are no
longer Jew and Gentile, but through Christ they have been united into
one group. He says that Christ proclaimed peace to both those who
were far off and near so that they all could have access
through him to the Father. He encourages them to recognize each other
not as strangers but as citizens in the household of God. This is
something to keep in mind as we go out to preach the gospel in our
community. We are not better or worse than “them.” We are all the
same through Christ. It through his love, through his death and
resurrection that we are united as one. He brings us in the the
community of believers as equals to encourage and help each other.
When we stop choosing to see differences as weakness, or something to
fear, we can recognize that we are all wonderfully made by God, and
that are differences are often strengths. It takes a diverse
collection of talents to work for the Lord.
This
may seem like a daunting task. Our cities are full of hustle and
bustle. It can be easy to get swept up in the current, or to become
lost. This even happens in the smaller cities like where I come from,
Chardon. And Chardon is barely a city, calling Chardon a city is like
calling Taco Bell Mexican food. Technically there's a connection, but
not much of one. When we break free and step into a different path,
it can be difficult, but Paul tells us we can have confidence when we
depend on Christ. On our own, we know so little from our perspective.
As time passes and our lives change our perspectives change.
Sometimes what seems to be one thing turns out to be the opposite.
Just as Christ unites us, he is our strength. If we depend on
ourselves and our own wisdom, we are weak. But if we acknowledge our
weakness and instead have faith, we have the power of the spirit
behind us. With that, we can do anything with confidence. For God
will provide and he will be our strength in all that is to come. With
him, we become so much more than we are alone.
And
like so many things it comes back to love. Preaching isn't always
just about words. One of the ways to preach is to live love. When we
actively show love to others, we are showing our love for Christ,
because what we do for the least, we also do for him. Love has
compassion for those in need. Love brings healing to the wounded
spirit. Love creates a community of fellowship, rather than drawing
boundaries between people. When we live love, others can see it. They
see something different, and they become curious. Some learn for the
first time, others rediscover the love they had forgotten. When we
live love, the light of Christ is in us. That light can't be kept
hidden. The light of Christ spreads like wildfire, igniting sparks
that will grow and burn with passion. It connects us not just in our
own communities, but in the greater community of all believers.
