Yes, I'm back. If I had known I was going to go on hiatus, I would have warned ya'll, but "... For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord." (Isaiah 55:8) In short, God had other plans.
While I was gone, I was perhaps more inactive than I've ever been while still being in reasonably good health. During that time, I saw and learned a lot -- more than I ever thought possible in ways that I never thought possible. Our God is good. He is so, so good, and He has been astonishingly good to me over the last couple of months. During those months, I saw miracles.
Yes, miracles, worked through flawed, often deeply troubled people. At first, all I saw were their flaws and troubles. I was cynical and bitter about what I saw until the Holy Spirit told the devil to shut up, and told me what was really going on.
Miracles.
John 5:2-10 tells two stories. One is about miracles wrought through ordinary people, and one is about what happens when those kinds of miracles are sadly lacking."Now there is in Jerusalem by the Sheep Gate a pool, in Aramaic called Bethesda, which has five roofed colonnades. In these lay a multitude of invalids—blind, lame, and paralyzed. One man was there who had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and knew that he had already been there a long time, he said to him, 'Do you want to be healed?' The sick man answered him, 'Sir, I have no one to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up, and while I am going another steps down before me.' Jesus said to him, 'Get up, take up your bed, and walk.' And at once the man was healed, and he took up his bed and walked." (John 5:2-9a)
Clearly, the curative powers of the pool by the Sheep Gate are old news. If you're sick, get yourself down to the Sheep Gate. If you can get somebody to put you in the pool, you'll climb out of there whole and healthy.
So, if you want to help sick folks who have nothing more to count on than human kindness, you go down to the Sheep Gate and pitch in.
Yet, one paralyzed man had to wait 38 years for someone to come along and put him into the pool. Jesus, being Jesus, simply said, "Take up your bed and walk," and the man was healed.
God is good, and that begs the question: Are we?
Will we wait until next Christmas, when gooey sentimentality, a constant sugar high, and the anticipation of what we're gonna "get" inspire us to do a good turn for someone who scares us, disgusts us, cheeses us off?
Or will we resort to legalism, as the church folks do in John 5:9b-17?
"Now that day was the Sabbath. So the Jews said to the man who had been healed, 'It is the Sabbath, and it is not lawful for you to take up your bed.' But he answered them, 'The man who healed me, that man said to me, 'Take up your bed, and walk.' 12 They asked him, 'Who is the man who said to you, ‘Take up your bed and walk’?' Now the man who had been healed did not know who it was, for Jesus had withdrawn, as there was a crowd in the place. Afterward Jesus found him in the temple and said to him, 'See, you are well! Sin no more, that nothing worse may happen to you.' The man went away and told the Jews that it was Jesus who had healed him. And this was why the Jews were persecuting Jesus, because he was doing these things on the Sabbath. But Jesus answered them, 'My Father is working until now, and I am working.'"
Jesus has asked us to go to work, too, but we have better ideas:
"I have to work out. That's my New Year's resolution."
"That's what the (charitable organization of choice) is for."
"He'll get by; he always has."
"She's just exaggerating. She has good, Christian people to take care of her."
"I'm crazy busy."
"No way. Did you hear what s/he did/said to/about me?"
I could go on. You probably could, too, but Jesus asks us to handle the problem of people in need in other, more practical ways.
"If you really fulfill the royal law according to the Scripture, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” you are doing well." (James 2:8)
"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven." (Matthew 5:14-16)
"When the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the angels with him, then he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all the nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.' Then the righteous will answer him, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you drink? And when did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?' And the King will answer them, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.'
"Then he will say to those on his left, 'Depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not clothe me, sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they also will answer, saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to you?' Then he will answer them, saying, 'Truly, I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." (Matthew 25:31-46)
If you're afraid I'm going to break out in a rousing chorus of "Reach Out and Touch Somebody's Hand," relax. I don't believe in high fructose corn syrup or its musical equivalent. Jesus doesn't either. He will never ask you to do something that He hasn't done Himself, and He will never lie to you. He's already anticipated your fears, roadblocks, and objections, because He's been there.
"And he said to all, 'If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me.'" (Luke 9:23)
If you're going to live a Christian life, Jesus says, you will suffer every day, because you'll put others ahead of yourself every day.
Sorry, but that's the plan. Even so, God made us who we are. He knows that we want to be rewarded for doing a good job.
Sure, I hear you say, the Kingdom is coming, but what about now?
"Jesus said, 'Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or lands, for my sake and for the gospel, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this time, houses and brothers and sisters and mothers and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age to come eternal life.'" (Mark 10:29-30)
The promise is staggering, but before you get too excited, look carefully. Jesus' Gospel is no name-it-and-claim-it theology. God's blessings arrive in His time, not ours. In the meantime, we're called on to love sad, frightened, angry, distant, resistant, strange, intimidating, scared, confused, and needy people every day.
Not even houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and lands, received a hundredfold can help us with that. So God blesses us another way, with the fruit of the Spirit. "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law." (Galatians 5:22-23)
When all you really want is a vacation to take your mind off the one crank in your life who won't be placated by your attempts to do the love-thy-neighbor thing, the fruit of the Spirit seems like a consolation prize.
It is anything and everything but, as I found out while I was gone.
See, God can change the person who opposes you, or He can change the situation. But unless you allow Him to change you -- unless you beg Him to change you -- the situation will come up again and again, and you will respond with the same weak, powerless, Godless attempts to handle it. Sure, you may look like the 800-lb. gorilla. You may look meek and mild. But unless you're responding the way that God would have you respond, you're the most powerless one in the room, because Satan is running the show, and you know better than to let him!
Presto! Another failed attempt to love your neighbor.
Sure, the fruit of the Spirit is cool, I hear you say, but the Holy Spirit won't help me find the time to help anyone.
Yes, He will. When the Holy Spirit is working through you, God's priorities become your priorities. It gets easier to love God and love your neighbor, too.
Where once you saw someone disabled and consequently irrelevant, you now see someone who needs a ride to the grocery store or the beauty salon this week.
Where once you saw a disturbed neighbor with a run-down house and a filthy yard, now you see someone who needs an extra hand with house and garden chores.
Where once you saw someone who hogs the spotlight with a constant recital of how much s/he does for everyone else, you now see someone who needs thanks and praise.
Where once you saw someone standoffish and uncommunicative, now you see a shy, insecure person who needs you to make the first move -- maybe hundreds of times before s/he opens up.
Where once you saw someone who is physically abusive, you now see someone who responds to verbal and emotional abuse with the only weapon s/he has.
And you reach out. And you get burnt out. And you ask for more, more, and still more of the Holy Spirit, because you believe Jesus when He says, "And I tell you, ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and the one who seeks finds, and to the one who knocks it will be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent; or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, who are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will the heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!" (Luke 11:9-13, emphasis mine)
And then, you take yourself down to the Sheep Gate, but you don't wait for Jesus to show up. You don't have to, because He's already inside you whispering, "That one. Take care of that one."
We'll be at it for the rest of our lives, "For the poor you always have with you," Jesus says in John 12:8a, and He means the traditionally poor, but the poor in resources, and the poor in spirit, too. They all need help. We all need help.
But, who cares for the caretakers? "Now the full number of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and no one said that any of the things that belonged to him was his own, but they had everything in common. And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all. There was not a needy person among them, for as many as were owners of lands or houses sold them and brought the proceeds of what was sold and laid it at the apostles' feet, and it was distributed to each as any had need." (Acts 4:32-35)
In other words, the church. And Acts 4:32-35 shows us exactly what the church is supposed to look like and act like.
If you haven't found a church like that, don't despair. Just ask, seek, and knock. Keep at it, and your Father will show you the way.
Here's the Currence Family of West Virginia with an old Jimmy Martin tune, "Help Thy Brother" -- followed by some other bluegrass gospel favorites.
See The Bluegrass Gospel Blog in full color on Tumblr.
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