What do you do when a poor kid hands you food?

What do you do when a poor kid hands you food?  Specifically, what do you do when this poor kid, Iago, hands you food?

Let me back up.

Several years ago I had the opportunity to go on a missions trip to Brazil.  It was a life changing experience.  We worked in a favela (slum/squatter village) called Jaragua on the edge of the city of Bauru.  For a week we spent all daylight hours playing with the children of prostitutes and drug dealers.  We ran around the dirt streets, gave piggy-back rides, and just spent time with the kids.

One of the most amazing experiences for me happened on the second to last day.  All week we had been giving out food whether bread rolls, gummy vitamins, or snacks.

On this second to last day I was sitting down between games of tag when Iago came over.  He proudly showed me the snack bag he had just been given, sat down in my lap, and began to eat.

And then he offered me a piece. . . 

You have to understand a couple things.  

1.  I studied microbiology in college, I know too much about diseases.

2.  Iago was not hungry.  Not hungry enough to even think about sharing his food.  These kids never get enough food.  After a week of our giving out food this child is full, full for the first time in who knows how long?

3.  For this first time in who knows how long Iago has the opportunity to give something to someone else.  For once his circumstances did not require Iago think only of himself.

So what do you do when Iago offers you food with his dirty favela hand?

You reach out with your dirty favela hand and you eat the gift he just offered you.  And you praise Jesus for the work He is doing in that moment which you are privileged to be a part of. 

Sure you say a little prayer asking God to kill the bacteria and inactivate any viruses, but mostly you thank God.

It makes you wonder if we really believe it is better to give than to receive?  If so then at times we should gratefully give others the opportunity.  

It is so easy in the face of such extreme poverty to think I am here only to give, to serve, to provide for these children and these people.  But there can be pride in thinking I have everything to give and others have nothing to offer me.  They are people too with plenty to offer others.  My focus should be less on what I can give and more on how to truly love and serve these children, whether giving or receiving.  It can be a hard balance at times, but my goal should be on what best serves them not on what best serves my feelings to serves.  As many people prepare to go on short term missions trips may we keep these ideas in mind.

Jesus' Defense

I find it both inspiring and sobering that during Jesus' entire trial, flogging, and execution only one person ever stood up for him.  Not the crowd, they deserted him.  The disciples fled during his arrest.  We all know Peter denied Jesus three times.  Pilate was too afraid of the mob to do something, Herod wanted a show, the Roman soldiers saw easy prey.  Even one of the two men crucified with Jesus mocked him (Lk 23:39).  But the one person who stood up for Jesus was the second man being crucified.  Lk 23:39-42:

One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Messiah? Save yourself and us!”But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.”
Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.”

Here we have the God of the universe being falsely accused and executed, and only one person stands up for him.  Jesus died a rebel's death to atone for rebels like me.  Maybe this other guy was the one person who at that moment understood how much he needed a savior.

I would like to think I would stand up for Jesus in this sort of situation.  I have never been asked to lay down my physical life for my God.  Hopefully I would.  But self-preservation can be so tempting.  Granted at this point the bandit on the cross next to Jesus was being executed, but even then it would be easy to sink into anger or cynicism, to lash out like the other convict.  We see it is only the man who had all hope stripped from him stand up for Jesus.  It is fascinating how much clarity comes from brokenness (or an awareness of our brokenness).  Discomfort has a way of pushing us toward God or away from God.

May we not be too comfortable to take a stand for our faith, and maybe allow brokenness and discomfort to push us toward our loving God who suffered so much for us.

Palm Branches of the Rebellion

Palm Sunday has become one of my favorite liturgical holidays.

Having grown up in a liturgical church we celebrated Palm Sunday each year complete with waving palm branches.  And I understood we waved the palms because the crowd had waved them during Jesus's triumphant entry into Jerusalem (Jn 12:12-15).  But I never wondered why the crowd waved palms in the first place.  And the answer is what makes things interesting.

According to Jewish tradition Jesus was not the first person to have palm branches waving as he marched into Jerusalem.  Over a hundred years prior the Jewish crowds had waved palm branches as a symbol of the Maccabean victory over the Greeks.

And so as Jesus rides into Jerusalem on the eve of Passover, the great festival of their ancestors freedom from slavery in Egypt, the question for the Jews and the Romans alike is what kind of king is Jesus?  The crowd waved palms as a symbol of victory over their oppressors.  They spread their cloaks in homage to their king.  This was rebellion against Rome.

Everyone thought Jesus came to be a political king.  The Jews saw his arrival in Jerusalem for Passover as the perfect time to begin his uprising.  Little did they know His plans were so much greater.

The people wanted a rebellion.  Jesus came to start a revolution.  They wanted to seize power, Jesus came to lay down his power for us (Phil 2:5-11).  The crowd underestimated the extent of Jesus's kingdom.  And often we do too.

I like to think somehow Jesus is only king over segments of my life, my moral behavior, or the "spiritual" portions, as if his truth and his kingdom do not affect all aspects of who I am.  The truth is we all have been seduced by the appeals of empire, and have accepted the values of this world as "normal".  But Jesus is not just an addendum to my nice comfortable life.  

In reality Jesus's plans are so much greater than mine.  His ways are more encompassing than we want to believe.  I have to surrender more than I expected.  I am still learning the extent of what truly following Jesus costs.  My hope is to one day leave the empire behind completely and to be free from the propaganda.

I love that hosanna means "save now".  Here we have the crowd cheering "save now, save now" without understanding Jesus has come to die for our sins so we may be saved.  Jesus in his goodness knows what we really need.  He understands our desperation better than we do.  And he is faithful to answer us even when we do not understand.

So let us wave our palm branches in protest of the empire which has seduced us into complacency.  Let us walk in the ways of the kingdom as exiles not a part of this world.  May we proclaim truth and fight injustice, starting with the injustice in our own lives.  Jesus please "save now" because I need you to save me.

Do I really love the Gospel?

Do I really love the Gospel?

Yes, I do.  I especially love certain parts of the Gospel, the things which benefit me.  Salvation, peace, hope, joy, I love all these aspects.  It's the parts about sacrifice and serving others I have a harder time with.

I find the Apostle Paul's love of the Gospel inspiring.  Woven throughout his letters we see Paul's diligence to the Gospel message.  He is consumed with an urgency to see the Gospel spread.

It is convicting to see how Paul will gladly give up his rights and ours for the sake of the Gospel.  There are social norms and social institutions which Paul restricts not out of inherent sinfulness, but because sharing the Gospel is better.  Slavery, eating meat sacrificed to idols, women being allowed to preach are among some First Century examples.  I have the freedom in Christ to eat meat sacrificed to idols unless doing so hinders someone from receiving the Gospel.

Why did Paul not abolish slavery in his day?  It is not because slavery is good, it's not.  But tackling this social issue would not advance the message.  Salvation is based upon the finished work of Jesus, and if I make altering your beliefs about a non-salvation issue a prerequisite to salvation I am getting in the way of the Gospel.  Paul's aim is not societal reform but eternal salvation.

So what does this mean for us now?  Does this mean social justice is bad?  No.  Both Jesus and Paul radically challenged social norms and institutions, but they did so not to the point of interfering with the Gospel spreading.

I should really love the Gospel more in its fullness, and yearn more to see the message shared.  It also means there are freedoms I have to give up for the Gospel.  The difficulty is not in finding opportunities.

Any thoughts or examples of situations where the freedoms we have in Christ which may be hindering the Gospel for others?  May we be more conscious of how our freedoms affect other's openness to the Gospel.

Heartbreak

Does it ever seem to you that our faith is somewhat lopsided?  Off-balanced?  In my relationship with God I have observed that God does most of the work.  And by most I mean all.

I cannot save myself.  I cannot even sanctify myself.  At the end of the day, all I can do is have the faintest of "yes" in my heart toward God.  And somehow in His magnitude that is enough.

On our own, of our own volition, we as humanity have only broken God's heart.  We had the option to choose God or choose Self, and we chose Self.  Left to my own devices I will gravitate to my own destruction.  The only hope I have is that even after rejecting God, breaking His heart, God still reached down and intervened in my life.

And God has not merely saved me from my sins, He continuously saves me from myself and my sins.  I don't know about you, but I repeatedly stumble.  To be blunt I find myself over and over saying "I love you Lord" with my words, will, and intentions, but with my actions too often I shout "Crucify."  I keep breaking His heart.

Maybe this is just me wrestling with a grace beyond what I can comprehend and certainly beyond what I deserve.  But God's love just doesn't make sense.  

The good news is that what seems like flawed logic to me is actually truth, and it is my logic, my paradigm centered on receiving rather than giving, that is flawed.  The economy of the Kingdom is not about what you can get, but what you can give.

And so I know that God loves me, not by my determination, but by His.  I don't have to win His heart, He  already has and forever will love me.  Not my words.  Not my actions.  Not my achievements.

Me
Just me

God is so relentless in His love for us.  I cannot get over this awesome truth.  I never will, and that is okay because God is more than worthy of all worship for all time.  May I learn to walk in obedience out of a deep love and a recognition of the heartache my sin still causes God.  May we remember that God is not the cruel judge waiting to smite us, but an intimate friend who's heart we have broken over and over, and still says that we are worth it.  And may all conviction we have spur us back into the loving arms of Jesus who is with us and waiting for us.