Turning green, are we?

So often we see the effect and spend most of our time combating the symptom rather than the cause.  If we have pain, we say we need asprin.  If we are broke, we think we simply need to make more money.  If we are overweight, we need a pill to be invented to block the fat on the food we eat.

What if instead of fixing the byproduct, we instead addressed the root of the symptom?  What should actually happen when we have pain?  We need to fix the broken ankle that's causing it instead of covering it up with asprin temporarily.  If we are broke, we need to stop spending money on video games, cell phone bills and coffee shops instead of simply getting more work.  If we are overweight, most of us should begin to eat differently or exercise more often instead of hoping for a pill to fix the symptom.

You see, no matter what you do in response to the problem, if the action or attitude that caused the symptom never changes, the symptom will always return.

Today?

Bailouts, money, stuff.  These are the topics of politicians in Washington, anchors on the 6 pm news, employees at water coolers, and moms at soccer games.

Our problems are mostly symptoms.  We have been living in sin for far too long and because of that sin, our present lifestyles are impossible to maintain.

This sin is not isolated to a movement or religion.  For believers in the way of Christ, it's a problem of the emergent church and the mainline denominations, the megachurch and the little chapel down the road.  It's time we were honest with ourselves and each other and confronted this sin that hounds us at every turn.

Sin? You're saying that this can't be the result of sin, right?

I would submit that it is.  There is a sin that has put us in the economic crisis we find ourselves in today. This is the sin that makes us always want that next thing, that nicer outfit, the newer car.  It's the sin that made us buy the house we really couldn't afford, and the car that we shouldn't be driving.  It's the one that makes us justify the $400 cell phone with the $100+ bill every month.

And until we address the sin issue, we will continue to build an economy that only works if we keep consuming stuff.  One that only works if we constantly want new clothes, new computers, new......

You get the point.

And now what happens when we all get nervous and cut back on our spending?  Well, people that manufacture the stuff we buy now don't have anyone to consume it.  People lose their jobs-unable to pay their bills, they foreclose on the homes.  And instead of having savings for the rough times, we find ourselves with closets full of stuff.  With storage units, garages and attics full of stuff.  It's hard to get rid of your old stuff. Mostly because everyone likes new stuff.  It has that smell, you know.

And when it comes to having a bunch of stuff, this time around, everyone got in on the game-Christians and non-Christians alike.

We all wanted to buy more stuff. Not just iPhones and new clothes. Some tried to make a quick buck on a preconstruction investment property that now they can't unload.   Some took out equity lines on their home to pay off credit cards that had balances from buying stuff.  Others?  You can probably list a few examples that I haven't mentioned.

This sin has a simple name.  Greed.  And what happens when the church struggles with greed?  What happens when believers think it's ok to do what the good ol' King James Version calls coveting?  What happens when we forget to be salt and light to a bland and dark world?

This.

Labels-the first part.

Have you ever reached the point in your life where you are tired of being labeled by something? Where you felt like you were more than that one thing that everyone else saw?

I heard an interesting piece of trivia a few months ago that really stuck with me. I have no idea if it's true, but think with me on this one.....In Britain, it is considered extremely rude to ask someone in conversation what they do for a living. And the reason is this: if someone is sitting at a pub next to someone else, their opinion should be equal to the other, no matter what the pay scale or job title. They should be able to talk politics, religion, or whatever without any labels-while simply just being people. Unfortunately, in America that's one of the first questions we ask each other in conversation. And then we label each other based on that one attribute.

Labels-why do we concern ourselves so much with them? On clothes, cars, zip codes, neighborhoods, watches, jewelry-they dominate our thinking when it comes to spending our money. But what about the labels that we place on each other?

I was at Animal Kingdom a couple weeks ago, and I was taking a walking tour of some exotic animals, and I was standing in front of the Okapi area. I had never seen an Okapi before, and I have to say that it did look pretty wacky. For a picture, check here.

While I was amazed at the creativity of a God who made this animal, and made its DNA unique from anything else, a lady walked up behind me with her husband and after about 5 seconds said this. "Oh, this is just a half-horse, half-giraffe." And then they kept on WALKING!

I couldn't believe it! Here was an animal that has been transplanted from the other side of the world, and this woman labeled it and was immediately disinterested after 5 seconds. She didn't care to know any more about it-she had already put it in a group she thought she already grasped.

And guess what? We do the same thing, but with each other.

We tend to label people in order to categorize them into groups that we think we can easily understand. It keeps us feeling proud that we "know" someone without any depth of relationship. If we can label them with minimal effort, then we can tell ourselves that we already know what and how they think. And therefore, we don't have to spend any time getting to know them. It's horribly unhealthy and is part of the reason we don't have real relationships and community with each other often.

Labels are usually based on traits that we can't change like gender or race or nationality OR they have to do with skill sets (like job, hobby, and talent) and the result of the skill, which is job title and pay scale.

Labels tend to separate and divide. Think of your church-how do they separate groups? Marital status? Age? What happens is that we put people in groups with others who we think are just like them, and that somehow this creates good community. That somehow we can take this one attribute and figure out something about them. Think I'm wrong or weird yet? Try this....

Think of who you respect more: a plumber or a doctor? A nurse or a housewife? A minister or a construction worker? No matter what your answer is, it's based on a preconceived notion of what the label entails. Maybe you don't trust ministers. Maybe you think doctors are better because they went to school longer. Whatever the reason, it immediately separates and stereotypes people unfairly.

The label takes away the uniqueness of the individual. Like every snowflake, we are all different, and even though we are all under the label "human," we have forgotten how each one of us is completely unique from the others. We label each other. But the truth is we all hate to be labeled ourselves. We are very passionate about our own labels-we insist that we are more than just that label, right?

I would argue that Jesus purposed to act in such a way labels were clearly emphasized as wrong. He ate with labeled people, and in doing so, treated them as forgiven and equal. He freed a harlot from demonic oppression, and she became one of his closest followers. His 12 right hand men included tax collectors, fishermen, and construction workers. Blue collar, white collar, it didn't matter.

Jesus absolutely loved to use the people's preconceived ideas and stereotypes based on labels, and flip them around. (A few examples? The Good Samaritan, Lazarus and the rich man, the woman at the well). He took labels and showed people that they couldn't generalize based on any of them. He showed that our own stereotypes only point out our own hypocrisy.

The ideas Jesus proposed were so opposite to the world and the culture He was living in. He never joined the popular revolution and rebelled against Rome. Instead, He took the labels that got the most glory and respect and pointed out the obvious hypocrisies and weaknesses. He actually never spoke against the wickedness of Rome. He spoke against the religious establishment and told parables about their lack of heart. He spoke of their pride and their religiosity regularly, which ultimately led to his execution.

As people who carry the name of Christ, what can we learn from this? As we walk this journey with God to become more like Him, what should happen?

The beauty of the kingdom of God is that labels don't matter anymore. They don't help you or hinder you with God. For example, God truly loves the poor, but he loves the rich just as much. Being one or the other doesn't help or hinder you when it comes to His love. It's the idea that God doesn't look upon our labels. He doesn't need to subgroup us into categories in order to understand us.

Just remember that He loves you very much, and He thinks you are more than your label. Whatever people have thought about you, whatever term they use to describe you-you are more than that one thing. Whether it is black, white, Hispanic, nerdy, athletic, lonely, weird, rich, or whatever-you are loved by Him, and He knows who you are. Not based on outward categories or attributes-He loves you for you, and knows your heart, the real you, and loves you anyways.

Gal. 3:28
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

Col. 3:11
In this new life, it doesn't matter if you are a Jew or a Gentile, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbaric, uncivilized, slave, or free. Christ is all that matters, and he lives in all of us.

Pirates for Jesus (aka Treasure Hunting)

Remember the verse that Jesus spoke in the New Testament- “Where your treasure is, there will your heart be also?”

I guess what breaks my heart is that the church has construed this verse to mean that you should tithe and give the church your money. And the truth is, we should bring the tithe into the house of the Lord-but this verse doesn’t tell us that. In Luke, it may suggest something much different. It talks about seeking the kingdom of God and selling our possessions and giving them to the poor. So let me ask you this. What if we looked at Jesus’ actions to shed light on His teachings? Jesus was a homeless man without a job during his ministry. If he didn’t have any money, then what was his treasure?

The modern preacher uses the illustration, “Show me your checkbook, and I’ll be able to see your priorities in life.” i.e. where your treasure is. But this is all with the basic premise of a materialistic society that thinks treasure is monetary wealth. In Mozambique, in the dumps outside of the city where children go through trash to find food and shelter, with no jobs or money, where is their treasure? Since they have no money, is that teaching of Christ not applicable to them? They don't have a monthly budget or a checkbook, so if you believe that preacher’s illustration, it wouldn't even apply to the poor. But let me ask you again in another way….

What does God consider His treasures? And what would happen if we treasured what God treasures and lived our life in a way that our priorities reflected that?

Here's what I'm suggesting: I believe that God’s treasure is His people, and since the beginning of Time, God’s heart has been with His people. His entire plan was to redeem and reconcile with His treasure. Where His treasure was, there His heart was also.

People were the crowning jewel of the creation. The world was not yet complete until God placed man and woman in it. God created man to have a relationship with….man is the only piece of His creation with a free will and an eternal spirit. The loss of that relationship through sin is why God sent His own Son to die. Would God send Christ to die for something that didn’t really matter, or someone He didn’t treasure? Probably not.

For God to plan to take the form of a man and live a life in order to die for His people….this act of God declares that people are His treasure. Men and women are incredibly valuable in His eyes. Nothing else matters to God….He even gave man the power of dominion over the rest of creation!

What if the church today treated people as their treasure? What would be the byproduct? I have a few ideas…..I don’t think that for churches, buildings and programs would be a top priority. I don’t think fundraising for those same buildings and programs would be the focus. I don’t think the church could truly allow the “least of these” to remain poor and hurting in their city. It doesn’t seem that it could happen if God’s treasure was also ours.

And if God’s treasure was also ours, would we wait inside our Sunday School classes, or on our church property hoping the lost and hurting would come to us and ask for help? Or would we follow the example of Christ who left heaven to go to the hurting….. even when Christ was here, we see His example of going out-feeding the poor and healing the sick WHILE He was still preaching and teaching and discipling. (See previous blog on “Magnets or Viruses”)

I’m afraid that we have compartmentalized and departmentalized church to the point that we think we are only supposed to follow one aspect of Christ and that someone else is supposed to pick up the rest of the slack. We think if we do the preaching, others should do the discipling, others should be worshiping God, or others should be feeding the poor. I’m not sure where it came from, but this idea of only having to do one thing for God, or just live for one scripture doesn’t seem to be biblical.

All of our lives are to be sacrificed for God for the purpose of redeeming His treasure. If we laid up for ourselves treasures in heaven, and we truly believed that treasures weren’t good works, but lives touched for the kingdom (see Isaiah 58), I believe it would revolutionize the way we do what we do in the body of Christ. Don’t you?