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Oh John Wesley…
Today’s session is a continuation of the previous days session on Globalization. We began today’ session three scriptures that scream social justice and social change.
Amos 5:21-24
Matthew 25:35-40
John 14:27
These three scriptures call us to a different way of living then one might choose. The scripture from Amos is a particularly difficult scripture for us to here in the US because of the value that we put on our Sunday morning worship. And though we do not give burnt offerings or offerings of fatted calfs but we are called to tithe and of course as Methodist we love to eat. But this scripture tells us plain and simple that God does not delight in these things. Not to say that these things are in themselves inherently bad, but what is bad is the security that we get and feel because we feel like because we have gone to church or tithed to our church that we have some how fulfilled our obligation but being a Christian is not about obligation, it is about a giving of ones self freely.
This is a very Wesleyan idea that although prayer, scripture reading and spiritual discipline are important but John Wesley felt that helping people took precedent . It is the idea that “however zealous we are for works of piety, [we] should be be more zealous for works of mercy”. Wesley wrote “Even reading, hearing, prayer are to be omitted, or to be postponed, ‘at charity’s almighty call’ – when we are called to relieve the distress of our neighbor, whether in body or soul”.
Can we as the church universal say that we are willing to put aside our religion when the cause requires something other than religion to meet the needs of our neighbors. Would we as a church be willing to cancel church one Sunday and in stead have the whole church meet at a homeless shelter and help our neighbors in the community. We must not turn our services and worship centers into hollow temples for sacrifice of worldly offerings while our neighbors in our community and around the world hunger and thirst, shiver and shake for lack of proper clothing or shelter.
Jesus speaks to this pretty bluntly in this Matthew scripture. He essentially is asking us “are we doing all that we can for those in need?” I think that if we are to be honest with ourselves we would know that we are not. But the problem comes really with the feeling that it isnt our job, it isnt our responsibility to help someone that I do not even know. Jesus says plain and simply if you do not help the least of these you are not helping me. We are called not just to help those in our neighborhoods and communities but around the world. We all have a limit to the amount of work that we can do but the real question is have we reached that point, or can we do more. There is always more that we can do.
I know that in these economic times the ability for many people in the middle class has gone down BUT there is something that we can all give. John 14 Jesus tells us that he leaves us with a certain peace, it is given not as the world give (with strings attached, my mother always told me that nothing is free) but given as Christ gives, free with no strings attached. This peace given freely allows us to act without fear of whether we are secure in our faith and relationship with God. God love us, we know this, but just as my facebook status say, God never gives us gifts so that we may simple hold on to them and revel in how great it is, but we are called to take the gifts that we are given and spread them through out the world.
I know that many of the things that I write are very idealistic and may seem like it is outside the realm of reason, but one thing that we can all pass no matter what our financial position or placement in the world is peace. We can through the spreading the Love of Christ to others in turn share the Peace of Christ with the world. May we find that love and peace for ourselves so that we can spread it through out the world, and remember that ALL that we have is a gift from God given not to hold on to but to share with the world. Thanks be to God.
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