Economic Fairness is a Global Endeavor

So everyone is in an uproar about jobs being outsourced and the purchase of things overseas that are taking away jobs here in the US. I don't necessarily have a problem with people's objections to this; however, we have been purchasing items from overseas for decades without any complaints. 

The real issue I have with all of this is the fact that we don't seem have a problem with a fourteen year old girl in China working 18 hour days for 6 cents an hour, but are in an uproar because we are losing technology jobs to India. I don't like either scenario, don't get me wrong. I am just wondering how we as Christians here in the western world can be so oblivious and self absorbed.  

Yes, we should be concerned with whether or not we and other Americans are being treated fairly economically speaking, but we should be more concerned by clear violations of human rights over-sees in the name of Global capitalism than we are about mild inconveniences domestically.  What I mean is this; when you get mad that the pair of jeans you are holding, do you take a second to wonder if the person who made them was payed a fair market value? 

Where is God?!: Finding God in the Hard Times

 John 11:28-44

²⁸ Then she returned to Mary. She called Mary aside from the mourners and told her, “The Teacher is here and wants to see you.”²⁹ So Mary immediately went to him.³⁰ Jesus had stayed outside the village, at the place where Martha met him.³¹ When the people who were at the house consoling Mary saw her leave so hastily, they assumed she was going to Lazarus’s grave to weep. So they followed her there.³² When Mary arrived and saw Jesus, she fell at his feet and said, “Lord, if only you had been here, my brother would not have died.”³³ When Jesus saw her weeping and saw the other people wailing with her, a deep anger welled up within him, and he was deeply troubled.³⁴ “Where have you put him?” he asked them. They told him, “Lord, come and see.”³⁵ Then Jesus wept.³⁶ The people who were standing nearby said, “See how much he loved him!”³⁷ But some said, “This man healed a blind man. Couldn’t he have kept Lazarus from dying?”³⁸ Jesus was still angry as he arrived at the tomb, a cave with a stone rolled across its entrance.³⁹ “Roll the stone aside,” Jesus told them. But Martha, the dead man’s sister, protested, “Lord, he has been dead for four days. The smell will be terrible.”⁴⁰ Jesus responded, “Didn’t I tell you that you would see God’s glory if you believe?”⁴¹ So they rolled the stone aside. Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said, “Father, thank you for hearing me.⁴² You always hear me, but I said it out loud for the sake of all these people standing here, so that they will believe you sent me.”⁴³ Then Jesus shouted, “Lazarus, come out!”⁴⁴ And the dead man came out, his hands and feet bound in graveclothes, his face wrapped in a headcloth. Jesus told them, “Unwrap him and let him go!”

John 11:28-44 (NLT)

Job

      To a certain extent we see a similar depiction of God in the story of Job.  Many of us are probably familiar with the story of Job.  Job is a righteous and holy man who is blessed by God.  God and the adversary (Satin) are observing Job, and sure enough, they make a wager of sorts.  The adversary bets God that Job would not be such a devote follower of God, if he lost it all.  So God allows Job to lose all he has.  When Job has finally had enough he confronts God, and the answer he gets is basically, “who do you think you are, I’m God and you’re not”.  I know that Job reveals God’s majesty and sovereignty and that many of you here today find comfort in this story, but I have to be honest, I am bothered by the story of Job.

Most of us know someone who is “at odds” with God because of something bad that has happened to them.  “How could God let so and so die, or let my parents get divorced.”  Perhaps some of us are struggling with this ourselves.  We don’t know where God fits when we are going through difficult times.  Often times we get the idea that God is this outsider in our suffering.  He may be the cause, or he may just sit back and watch.  Either way he seems so indifferent to our plight.

Bruce Almighty

In the movie Bruce Almighty, Bruce, played by Jim Carey, compares God with a mean kid who cooks ants with a magnifying glass.  He states that God could fix his problems in a matter of seconds but would rather pull of his feelers and watch him squirm. 

Is this really an accurate depiction of Gods involvement in our times of hardship?  Is God taking bets about how we will handle tragedy and then putting us though the ringer?  Is God really a mean kid with a magnifying glass?

At this point we must take a step back and return to today’s reading.  For you see you can’t look at Job’s depiction of God without looking at God revealed though his son Jesus Christ.  John chapter 1 states that The Word, that is Jesus, was with God in the beginning, and that Jesus was God.  This is why we believe in a Triune God; God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit.  If Jesus is God, then Jesus’ characteristics revealed on earth are the characteristics of God.  With that in mind, let’s explore today’s passage.

Context of the passage

As we look at the beginning of this chapter we read that Jesus is sent word from Martha and Mary that their brother Lazarus is sick.  Now we learn that Jesus has some history with Lazarus and his two sisters, Mary, of course, anointed his feet, and verse five tells us that Jesus loved all three of the siblings.  In fact, he cares for this man so deeply that he goes back to Judea, whose inhabitants had sought to stone Jesus.  Jesus reveals to his disciples that he already knows Lazarus is dead and that he will raise him from the dead.   Let me say that again, Jesus already plans to raise Lazarus from the dead.

Lazarus indeed dies before Jesus is able to reach him; in fact he has been dead for four days when Jesus arrives.  First Jesus is met by Martha, and then Mary.  Mary and Martha both say the same thing “Lord, if you had been here, my brother, my brother would not have died.”  They say the same thing but they say it very differently.  When Martha says this he tells her that her brother will rise, and goes on to hint of the things to come saying in verse 25 I am the resurrection and the life.  But when Mary says this, and proceeds to weep, as do the others (possibly paid mourners), it deeply moved him and Jesus wept.  In the end Jesus does indeed raise Lazarus from the dead. 

Many will argue (me included), that the Jews were wrong when they equated Jesus tears and sadness with the love of Lazarus.  After all Jesus already planned to raise Lazarus from the dead.  Rather, it should be said that Jesus being moved and caused to weep was a measure of his love for the bereaved sisters.  Even though Jesus knows everything is going to be ok, he still feels great sadness over the pain that Lazarus loved ones are feeling.  This is the ultimate display of love and empathy.  This love is what prompts him to be lead to the tomb, and then to raise Lazarus from the dead.

I believe it is not a stretch to say that just as Jesus wept for Lazarus sisters, so too does God weep for us.  Just as this deep moving that took place within Jesus heart prompted him to act, so too does the deep moving in Gods heart prompt him to act.

I am not promising anyone a miracle, nor am I trying to explain God’s role in suffering.  To the answer, does God care when I suffer, the answer is a resounding yes!

This is what this Lenten season is all about.   For God so loved the world, was so deeply moved for the lost sheep of this world that he sent his one and only son to die and to be raised from the dead in order to make a way for his lost children to be reunited with him.  What role does God play in our suffering?  He suffers with us.  Over and beyond that, He is our savior, maybe not in the exact way that we seek it, but ultimately he is our savior.  Through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ God’s love will ultimately overcome his children’s suffering. 

Seeking Cultural Relevancy is not Heresy! (St Patrick Pt 2)

I am so sick of any attempt to be culturally relevant being branded as heresy. Historically, ignoring the world that "the mission field" lived in has been disastrous.  Even the most conservative of denominations have missionaries who take great pains to understand the cultures they are entering.  Why are we not learning from our history?!  The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, expecting somehow to have different results.

The early Roman church believed that cultural changes and conformity were necessary for the spreading of the good news. It was assumed that a culture had to be civilized, at least in part, (ie “Romanized”) as a prerequisite to become Christian. Once Christian, further conformity to the Roman norm was expected. These populations were expected to adopt Roman customs, including reading and speaking Latin as well as doing church “the Roman way.” This was not initially the case with the early Roman church; stories of the first century church report missional outreach to cultures that were neither Roman nor civilized (cannibal populations were even on the list of those receiving the good news). However, by the second century it was assumed that reaching barbarians for Christ was impossible.¹

Protestant missions have historically followed a similar two pronged focus; to both evangelize and civilize the culture. Here too, many believed that a certain level of civility was needed for acceptance of the gospel to be possible. Generally, civilizing was defined by the nation that was sending the missionaries. Spanish missionaries sought to make peoples more Spanish while puritans from Britain tried to make them more English.⁴ International missions today has moved passed the model of required conformity, but domestically we often fall into the trap of believing that societal conformity is prerequisite for receiving the good news of Christ. Perhaps this is why Christians often feel the need to impose Christian values on the unbelieving world.²

We experience this same tension within modern-day ministry. The culture of today, for example, is not always seen as “civilized.” Adults shake their heads when young adults have the audacity to wear hats in church services, or check their cell phones during the sermon. They can’t believe that being talked at for forty minutes is not engaging to youth, even though their own minds are distracted. I can’t think of a single time this past year that an adult has asked me how youth group went last night, or how God was working in the lives of our young people, and yet, I can recall numerous moments when youth were criticized for not picking up after themselves in our church. Do we think that God can’t work in young people’s lives until they start vacuuming up their own pretzel crumbs? Is Christian stewardship a prerequisite for receiving the good news of Christ?

I recently heard a powerful story about a young urban youth who accepted Christ. This newborn Christian was so excited about his conversion that his enthusiasm spread and he took a friend with him to church the following Sunday. Neither of these young men owned church clothes, so they wore what they thought was their nicest clothes. When they arrived at the front doors of the church one of the elders was waiting with his arms crossed. He told the young men to “come back when they had learned how to show God proper respect”.

We all have stories similar to this. The message is similar to that of the Roman church: “You have to be like us if you want to be a Christian.”

Youth workers can engage students differently, encouraging them to stay within their culture while seeking to understand the person of Jesus.

1.   George G. Hunter III, The Celtic Way of Evangelism: How Christianity Can Reach the West…Again (Nashville: Abingdon Press, 2000) pp17.

2.   Ibid., pp 16