Most of our neighbors know that we both work at a church. We have tried to love them at all costs, love their kids, take in their garbage cans, and overall be friendly. We have shied away from promoting any of our beliefs, and only answer questions about those beliefs when asked.
Something interesting happened yesterday. Among the hustle and bustle of construction (tile, electrician, roofer) running around our house, our neighbor, Howard (not exactly sure what his beliefs are) dropped off a little packet of paper with a large green paper clip and a little note on the back of his business card, "Short good stuff for smart busy young people to read." Ah, nice Howard, thank you for the compliment. And so, today at home over a chicken burrito I read his little packet of information.
It contains two very different articles. One is a message from a wedding that was held on October 6th of this year. While I'm not sure who the minister was, the people getting married were named Martha and Ray. The message is three and a half hand written pages about Col3:12-17, Phil4:4-9, and John15:9-12 and 16-17. The minister's main point is love is so great that for millions of years we've been trying to figure it out, explain it, and give it at the same time. God calls himself love, and that's appropriate because people have been trying to figure out God for an equal amount of time. So today, these two people are getting married with love with God as their witness. It's not bad, and not overly weighty.
The second is an article from The Christian Century Magazine (never heard of it, but sounds pretty religious) by Wendell Berry. It's called The Burden of the Gospels with the subtitle "An Unconfident Reader". It is five typed pages long and discusses everything from contradictions in the gospel, to materialism, to the good Samaritan, to taking care of the environment. It's a wordy static examination of this guy's thoughts about the Gospel. Here in lies the problem.
I cannot be inspired merely by the Bible itself, nor by Mr.Berry's diatribe about it's flaws and his questions (some that I share, and some that I have no question about). Why? Because if I have learned anything lasting about Jesus it has been through action. Rarely have I ever been moved to tears or laughter sitting still and doing nothing.
Wanna know why Jesus says to love your neighbor? Well, you need to go love them, and you'll find out why. Wanna know what He means by love your enemies? You'll have to take another action step. It is not enough to sit and analyze the Gospel, or even memorize it. Wanna know the real power in Jesus giving up his life for us? Then you have to give up your life for someone else. To me, all the answers about what Jesus meant by each of these statements have been revealed by jumping in -- stepping out in faith and trying them out. I suppose that is why faith is described as a gift. Without it, the intellectual pursuit of figuring out all the answers before you ever take action falls flat.
5 comments:
No, this is not a guest post by R's hot husband AP. Go R! This rocks! More fired up R posts please!
Deep...yet simple. Good stuff.
Good stuff, Rachel! My question, was your neighbor trying to "convert" you and AP by giving you these articles, or just wanting to see your reaction knowing that you hold a Christian belief system? Did you have any discussions with him about the articles?
Maybe the fact that Howard went to the trouble to collect the articles and pass them on shows they fell in his "Food for Thought" category. He may be revealing his faith and want you to ask him his beliefs so you can enjoy a good discussion. He's just probably not Evangelical to the extent some people are.
Mommy
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