August 7, 2007

Difficult Message

Read 1 John 3:11-20 (Summer Observations Con't)

"If anyone has material possessions and sees his

brother in need but has no pity on him, how can

the love of God be in him." vs. 17

OBSERVATION 2: It is easier to look away than it is to look into the eyes of someone in need. Generally, we are drawn to pretty things. This summer I spent time in Charleston, South Carolina. I thought it was truly one of the most beautiful cities that I have ever visited. The architecture was grand, the ocean--magnificent, the food--delicious, and the atmosphere--inviting. In no more than a week, I managed to fall in love with Charleston. Staying on Folly Beach throughout our vacation, by the end I was ready to sell everything and buy a surfboard. Everything was beautiful...Well, that is until you venture north of Calhoun Street. When we arrived in Charleston our map directed us to our beach house via one of the most impoverished areas of the city. It didn't take us long to realize that we weren't in "Kansas anymore Toto."

See, we had driven quickly through this portion of town on our way to luxury, and having spent most of the week in the midst of the "pretty" we forgot the unseemly was still present...until we left and were forced to make our way through that portion of the town once again. There it was, right before me, reminding me that not all of life is pretty...But truthfully I didn't want to see it. I wanted to look at the pretty, the clean, and the inviting and drive real fast past those areas of need. Besides, I was on vacation...right?

I have come to recognize in myself and in the church as a whole, that the tendency to look away, to stay south of our Calhoun streets, to covet the beautiful, inviting, and grand keeps us from truly being effective in fulfilling the commands of Christ. The Apostle John writes a challenging word for us still today...maybe, especially today. Throughout his letter, he discusses the necessity of love. However, for John love isn't some benign emotionalism or even the lustful bent toward self-gratification. For John, love is the very embodiment of Jesus Christ in this world. It is way of being that bodies forth God in such a way as to offer to the world the gift of self-sacrifice and unconditional love. Love is the way of Jesus that refuses to let us off the hook and instead forces to look upon the "not-so-pretty." The love of Christ recognizes and runs to the broken, the needy, and the disregarded.

In our passage above, John writes, "If anyone has material possessions and sees..." Seeing is key. We spend most of our lives attempting to stay blind to need. We avoid those areas of town. We scurry past those people in the parking lots. We avoid those brothers and sisters on Sunday Mornings at church. We bury our heads in the beautiful and in the process we miss Jesus. The gospels are pretty clear in teaching us that to see Jesus is to look amongst those that are generally ignored or invisible.

OBSERVATION 2: It is easier to look away than it is to look into the eyes of someone in need.

CLOSING WORDS: God in Christ refused to look away. Instead, he took a good hard look into the neediness of humanity. He saw the broken and the ugly. He saw how "not-so-pretty" life wrapped in sin had become. He ventured North of Calhoun Street and made his way to us...God in flesh. He loved us even though we weren't pretty. In fact...he loves us so much he gave himself away on our behalf. And here's the kicker...He calls us to do the same. So let us quit looking away so that we might see Jesus.