Anointed - For What Purpose?
Sermon
GOD'S TWO HANDS
Sermons for Advent, Christmas and Epiphany
An Extended Sermonic Essay
A young man stood in the pulpit for his first sermon. The congregation was shocked by his words; but the young man was deadly serious. After the service they ran him out of town; and would have pushed him off a cliff - but he escaped.
Where did this happen? In Nazareth, 2,000 years ago. The young preacher's name was Jesus, and Nazareth was his home town. And that's only the beginning of the story.
The Call
The shocking text was simple enough. But when the young preacher claimed that it applied to him, personally; it was more than they could take.
Jesus quoted from Isaiah 61:1-2:
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord ... and he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears."
(Luke 4:18-19, 21)
When we pray, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven," we are asking that those specific values of Isaiah (caring for the poor, the broken-hearted, the imprisoned) be realized in human relationships. This is clearly God's purpose, but our greed still prevents the realization.
God revealed this call to ministry through Isaiah; he intended for the Call to be lived out by Jesus, and then by his followers down through the ages. Jesus knew this; but the people didn't believe it. We can believe the message and do nothing about it. On the other hand, we can believe and make it come to pass in our lives. This God calls to us at Christmas and every day of the year. We are anointed.
Nothing less than the Spirit of God has anointed us. A flash from the mind of God has burned itself into the mind of man. What happened at Christmas was a breakthrough from heaven to reveal to us the purpose of our living. The voice of God demanding of us total compassion, because he is total compassion.
The Poor, the Afflicted, the Imprisoned
God has anointed you and me to "bring good tidings to the afflicted, to build up the broken hearted." Have we obeyed? Charles Colson was swept from the corruption of Watergate to the compassion of Prison Fellowship. He has brought good tidings and love and new life to thousands of prisoners. It might well be said of him as was said of another:
Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature's night.
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light.
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth and followed thee.
Colson found himself worshiping God with all of life. He had been swept into costly love. He found himself, by the grace of Christ, bringing law and love into balance. He had discovered that compassion is the key to life.
Colson, in his book Loving God, illustrates the words of Isaiah. He tells a fantastic story of a Jewish doctor who, in the sufferings of a Siberian labor camp, discovered the cross and Christ. A Christian prisoner had witnessed to him. Now the Jewish Christian doctor wanted to share his faith with someone else. He was operating on a young prisoner who had intestinal cancer. In the care following the operation he witnessed to the desperately sick boy his own new-found faith. The Jewish prison doctor even confessed to the boy that much of his own suffering was deserved. The young patient could hardly believe that a Jew was confessing his sins, and blaming no one else for his sufferings. The next morning the doctor was found dead, having been beaten to death by the guards. The young prisoner survived and could never forget the faith and compassion of the doctor who had saved his life. He, too, became a Christian, and lived to tell the world about his faith. His name was Alexander Solzhenitsyn1. "He hath anointed us to bring good tidings to the afflicted, to bind up the broken-hearted."
The second purpose of Christ's anointing is "to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of prison to them that are bound." (Isaiah 61:1) In Loving God, Colson also tells of some Christians opening an Agape House for families of prisoners who had no place to stay when they came to visit. One woman in coming to Jefferson City to visit her husband in prison, would catch the last night bus from Kansas City. She would reach the grimey bus station in Jefferson City at two a.m. She then would carry her six-month-old baby to a downtown hotel, sneak through the lobby when no one was looking, into a rest room, and wedge herself and her baby into a toilet stall. There she would remain until eight o'clock in the morning, when the prison opened for visitors. These "Shadow people" were coming and going all of the time with no place to stay.
Some of the area churches decided to take some of these people into their homes, but there were too many of them. In 1980, two women formed the Agape House board. They wanted to reveal "the unconditional caring love of Jesus." Though they didn't have a nickel, they somehow bought an old boarding house near the prison for $46,000. The church members teamed up and put the old house in good condition. They hired Mildred Taylor as house manager. Mildred was a small Southern Baptist woman waiting for a call to serve God. She moved from South Carolina to Missouri and took over.
Mildred offered all her guests a warm welcome, a New Testament, clean sheets, towels, and room keys. She charged $3.00 a night, if they could pay it. If not, it was free. The door to her apartment was always open for conversation and counseling.
Sara was a young mother visiting her son in prison. She tapped on Mildred's door, and seemed comforted just to sit quietly with Mildred. A little later Mildred received this letter from Sara:
Dear Sister Mildred,
I told you how much staying at your house meant to me, but I did not tell you the most important thing. I read the Bible you gave me the very first night, but was too sick and heavy-eyed to finish. I had been trying to reaffirm my faith for months. The next night I had $13.00 left to get home on. Then I saw that Shirley was in much greater need than I was. I gave her half of my money, because I knew God would provide ... well, I went to bed feeling good that I could, with God's help, do something for someone else. I read more of the Bible and got to the page where you say the prayer to get saved, and I prayed and was washed clean of my sins! I prayed a lot before I went to sleep. Then the next day I told the Lord how sick and tired I was, and if it was His will that I might have a dry road home so it would not take me six hours. Before I went a mile the rain had stopped and I had sun all the way. I sang and praised God all the way home. The country had never looked so good.2
Another pretty tough guest at Agape House mused out loud: "I do know one thing though .. if God is real and He is good, He must be something like these ladies at Agape House." Colson is revealing in his book what it is like to carry out God's mission of love in the life of the world - especially in dealing with prisoners and their families.
But prison can be more than iron bars. It can be sickness, loneliness, poverty, guilt, depression, drugs, wrong sex, or many other kinds of enslavement. Recently I received a letter from a young girl from another state who was in Asheville in a mental hospital. I had no idea who she was. I quote from her letter:
Dear Rev. Tuttle,
I have been given your name by Tommy Tyson. I need your help ... I am suffering from depression and my doctor tells me I will be here several more months. I need prayer for inner healing. If you could come visit me, either call or write me. I really want to be healed.
I am a Christian, but I feel I have wandered from God. I need help in getting back to God.
Without healing, I may face a lifetime of mental illness. I know God doesn't want this. Sometimes I don't even know why I am depressed. We need to pray together to find the cause of my depression ...
Please write or call if you can help.
Sincerely yours,
With her doctor's permission I went to see her. We were given a small room in which to talk. She was almost hopeless with despair and feared that she would never be a normal person.
I was praying. I did want so deeply to help her find her freedom. "I'm so afraid," she said. I asked, "Do you believe that Christ has the power to heal you?" She gave a faltering, "Yes."
"Remember," I said, "God is not mad at you. He is worried about you. He doesn't want one of his children paralyzed by fear and depression. You have much to offer life. God needs you. He wants to heal you, and use you to help others.
"A long time ago, Jesus said to the paralyzed man: 'Son your sins are forgiven (Your break with God is healed), Take up your bed; get back into life. You are needed. God will enable you.' "
I shared with her an experience I had once had. My doctor, in diagnosis, had painted a dark picture. I was sick and frightened. I was on my knees praying, and I recalled what a sick man had said to Jesus: "Lord, if you will, you can heal me." And Jesus answered, "I will." And the man was healed. As the ancient scene ran through my mind, I heard quietly, but clearly, the whisper spoken to me, "I will." I was at peace. I went through the surgery with quiet confidence. I recall coming out from under the anesthesia and seeing the tall surgeon standing over me and saying: "You are clean. You are all right. You can live forever as far as I am concerned." I was alive again, by the touch of Christ. My depressed fiiend seemed to get the message.
We went on talking quietly. I felt the presence of Christ. I felt that we were being led. I reminded her of something Christ had said to his disciples just before he left them: "My Peace I leave with you. My Peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." I suggested that Christ wanted to give her his peace as a sheer gift. He would give it; she could receive it, a loving gift from God. I thought I could see something moving in her subconscious mind. I could see indications of a new peace within her. The healing process had begun.
We had a quiet prayer; I gave her some helpful books. I left, feeling that Christ was releasing her. A month went by. I had been out of town several times and did not hear from her. When I called the hospital again, I learned she had been released soon after our conversation, and had gone home. There is power in this ministry Christ calls us to, if we depend on that power and love greater than our own, which Christ supplies with the call.
The Holy Spirit opened a very real prison for Peter and for Paul. But the real liberation came for Paul on the road to Damascus. Christ is still setting people free all over the world. We are all imprisoned, more or less, and we need the dynamic freedom that only Christ can give. Then we are anointed to share that new life with every one within our sphere of influence.
The Acceptable Year of the Lord
Isaiah's vision is many faceted. He continues, "He hath anointed us to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." The Kingdom of God is coming. The Kingdom of God is within you. The Kingdom is not of this world. We pray, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven." Every year is "the acceptable year of the Lord." As each of us lives we are confronted by the acceptable year of the Lord; as we die in faith, we are ushered into that eternal reality of the acceptable day of the Lord. Even if we should stumble into nuclear war and blow the world to fiery bits, the Christ will be there waiting for those who love him. We can trust him. We accept C. S. Lewis' statement: "Christians never have to say Goodbye."
Charles Colson writes of Myrtle, a very sick grandmother who had accepted as her call the mission of writing to desperate prisoners who received no letters. She was "anointed" to write redemptively. One of the answers she received reveals the effectiveness of her ministry:
Dear Grandmother,
I received your letter and it made me sad when you wrote that you think you will not be alive much longer. I thought I would wait and come to see you and then tell you all you have meant to me; but I've changed my mind. I'm going to tell you now.
You've given me all the love and concern and care that I've missed for years, and my whole outlook on life has changed. You've made me realize that life is worth living and that it is not all bad ...
I didn't think I was capable of feeling love for anyone again but I know I love you as my very own precious grandmother.2
Here was the way that Myrtle worked: "When I get a letter, I read it, and when I answer it, I pray: 'Lord, you know what you want me to say. Now say it through me.' And you'd be surprised sometimes at the letters he writes."
The young businessman, David Chapman, had come a long way in his Christian experience. But now he faced his greatest challenge. It brought to his mind the passage in the Psalms that had grabbed him:
Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless;
Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.
Rescue the weak and the needy;
Deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
"What am I going to do?" he groaned.4 All of us should experience some agony as we face the oppression in today's world.
1. Taken from Loving God by Charles Colson. Copyright (c) 1987 by Charles W. Colson. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.
2. Ibid., p. 186.
3. Ibid., p. 213.
4. Ibid., p. 244.
The Day of Accountability
At this point the inaugural address of Jesus takes a new direction: "He hath anointed me ... to proclaim the day of vengeance of our God." How can this be? God has been holding out his hand of grace - peace and healing. Now he thrusts forth his hand of accountability. Millions have not accepted their mission of love to their brothers. They have missed life's true meaning because they have rejected God's offer of meaningful living. Their rejection of God's will and their rebellion against him have released in them an inner hell, now and hereafter. They have voluntarily separated themselves from God and life. But that does not have to be the end. Even like the thief on the cross they can see how they have rebelled against truth and love, they can catch a new glimpse of life in the face of Jesus. They can turn their lives over to him, and be received once more into the Kingdom of God. But do not forget that we are accountable to the Master of the universe. Our whole destiny swings on this point. "God is not mocked. Whatsoever we sow, that shall we also reap." God is fair and just. God cannot put up with our robbing our brother of his birth-right, with our pushing for war and death in order to pile up riches; with our lying in order to grab more than our share; with our getting rich on the suffering of others (no matter who they are). The day of vengeance, the day of accountability is a reality. This is the time when God ultimately sets things right.
Colson points out the incipient evil in all of us:
What is it? Nothing less than evil within us, the dark side of the line that, Solzhenitsyn wrote, passes through the human heart.
Indeed, that is where the battle is being fought. It is not between good people and bad people, like a game of cops and robbers; it is not between good government and bad, like the U.S. and the Soviet Union. It is not being fought for mere national or international stakes. The war to end all wars is a battle for eternal stakes between spiritual forces - and it is being waged in you and in me.1
Jesus was clear in pointing out that those who acted with compassion toward their fellow human beings and those callously indifferent to the needs of others live a totally different life and come to a drastically different end:
Then shall the King say unto those on his right hand, "Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat. I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink. I was a stranger and ye took me in, naked, and ye clothed me, I was sick, and ye visited me, I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Then shall the King say also to them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire [the fire may be more of the spirit than of the body - but it burns with incredible heat], prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not." (Matthew 25:34-43)
This, truly, is what life is all about: caring for each other, helping one another, loving one another. God cares, and he expects us to care. In his life on earth Jesus showed us how to care. We know, in our hearts, that this is the true way of life. Our relationship to God is determined by our love for our fellow human beings.
1. Charles Colson, Loving God, p. 104.
Social Justice
Reinhold Neibuhr bores in on this and reveals our problem:
However much human ingenuity may increase the treasures which nature provides for the satisfaction of human needs, they can never be sufficient to satisfy all human wants; for man, unlike other creatures, is gifted and cursed with an imagination which extends his appetites beyond the requirements of subsistence. Human society will never escape the problems of equitable distribution of physical and cultural goods which provide for the preservation and fulfillment of human life.1
Niebuhr is saying that because we are innately selfish we will always have to be disciplined from the outside or have a sufficient inner discipline to care for our brothers and sisters. Christian love and caring may be foolishness to the pagan world around us, but it is the only road to ultimate justice and the Kingdom of God. Niebuhr further suggests that, though educators continually insist that justice through voluntary cooperation depends only on a more adequate educational enterprise, the facts indicate that mere education has not produced the social good will powerful enough to insure the rights and needs of others. The spirit of humanity has to insure this ultimate justice. Only a drastic spiritual awakening will guarantee such just relationships.
The inability of human beings to transcend their own interests, sufficiently to see the interests of their fellows as clearly as they do their own, reveals the necessity of a greater force to bring about this justice. That force may be revolution, government compulsion, or conscious obedience to God. Conscious obedience to God in social justice will of necessity have to be implemented both by individual Christian compassion and by Christian government participation. The communist experiment has proved that revolution without Christian compassion and a Christian sense of total fairness does not produce justice. Neither does Democracy work without our overwhelming Christian compulsion for total justice for all its citizens. The compelling self-interest of those in power often undermines compassion; and the privileged groups that inevitably arise in all known societies usually become ingrown and block the freeflow of justice.
At the beginning of the twentieth century Walter Rauschenbusch caught a vision of social justice and saw its relationship to Christian experience and Christian practice. He wrote powerfully in this field and has had a great influence on the development of the Christian social conscience. He saw that such a great task demands a great faith. A great faith directs our "conscious energies" and our "subconscious drifts." In the last forty years our nation has made great progress in social justice (although at the present moment it seems to be in a blind and selfish reversal).
We universally praise the Golden Rule but it collapses in action, because we are tempted to unfair gain, or blocked by the fear of losing our personal advantage. The old prophets in their cry for justice were inspired by the Living God. What is our Kingdom? Is it the kingdom of mammon or the Kingdom of Christ? At times we don't even know. Jesus made the will of his heavenly Father the content and purpose of his life, and calls us to make it ours. He repudiated revolution and chose to build his Kingdom on compassion, justice, and sacrifice. Jesus laid the foundations of modern democracy, and without his Spirit democracy collapses in greed. Christ was anointed to champion the cause of the poor, the captives, the blind, the bruised and the crushed. We too are anointed as Christians to the same task. But many have lost Christ in the mad rush for still more property, still more dress, still another automobile, still more sumptuous meals. Our society collapses in selfishness, and God holds us responsible.
Christ was high-powered energy from first to last. His death itself was action. It was the most terrific blow that organized evil ever got. He always moved with a purpose and his purpose was always the Kingdom of God.2
His cross was the climax of evil in the world; his resurrection was the root of ultimate righteousness. Our aim as Christians is impossible without the grace of God; without the continuous action of the Holy Spirit, and our obedience. That aim is no less than a divine social order established on earth.
We contemplate the possibility of an ethical commonwealth, a Kingdom of virtue, a society of mutual caring. The judgment of God blocks our selfish obsessions and our blind commitments to destructive force.
This is not "pie in the sky;" this is the realization of a way of righteousness here that grows into an eternal Kingdom. As Rauschenbusch put it:
This joyful religious acceptance of the present life involves no surrender of the life to come. When our work for God is done and we are tired, when our growth in God has exhausted the opportunities offered by the present life, we can lie down secure in the hope that our life will unfold in greater fulness in a new environment ... But for the present we are here ... The hope of the Kingdom of God makes this earth the theater of action, and turns the full force of religious will and daring toward the present tasks.3
With business, financial, and political-military force gone wild, let us break with our social evils of injustice and greed, not by Communism's destructive revolution but by a real Christian faith and love in action, under the power and direction of almighty God. Now! Too often the industrial-military complex imposes its point of view on the nation and rushes us toward the brink of war instead of toward the paths of peace and constructive relationships. This is why God himself takes a hand more often than we think.
Industrial, financial, and political leaders are temporarily in charge of God's vineyard. God has a right to send an urgent word to inquire for his share of the output under their management. Rauschenbusch adds, "If they cannot cleanse our industry of despotism and exploitation, they must not be surprised if God terminates their lease of power."4
Occasionally a great industrial enterprise will get the message and see the vision. In 1911 the Diamond Match Company allowed its competition the use of sesquisulphide, on which it held a patent, in order to put a stop to the terrible phosphorus poisoning among workers in the match industry. They voluntarily set the health of workers above their monopoly of profit.
Rauschenbusch suggests that God's country begins where men love to serve their fellows. The Devil's country begins where people devour people. It is of interest to observe that "Godliness brings forth wealth, but the daughter devours the mother." The only idolatry that really threatens Christians today is setting mammon above God. Jesus seeks to found on earth the reign of God among us.
True Christians will make the social and economic order work with justice for all. Once at an Oxford University seminar I got to know a Methodist pastor from Czechoslovakia. He told of the embezzlement of funds by the manager of the leading Soviet industry in his city. He was disposed of. The Assistant Manager was installed in his place. He too embezzled the funds. He was disposed of. The authorities came to my friend, the pastor, saying, "We have been watching your people. They are honest. They can be trusted. Can you recommend one of your members for this position?" A Methodist Christian was given the position. The only thing that will last and the only thing that really works now is the reign of God (the Christ-Spirit) in human relations. The reign of God is more powerful and more workable than socialism, more powerful than democracy.
1. Reinhold Niebuhr, Moral Man and Immoral Society, p. 1.
2. Walter Rauschenbusch, Christianizing the Social Order, p. 67.
3. Ibid. p. 97.
4. Ibid. p. 290.
Beauty for Ashes
Our text from Isaiah closes: The Lord hath anointed me to "Comfort all that mourn ... to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." (Isaiah 61:2-3) Jesus took this anointing seriously. He acted upon it, and calls us to do the same. Isn't it beautiful what God wants for his children? But how does it work in today's world?
A recent book, No More Shacks, gives us some creative insights. It's the story of the Habitat movement, the building of housing for the poor, all over the world. It shames us to realize that while one house in Denver recently sold for $19,000,000, millions of poor in the world have no home. If you own your own home, you are better off than 95% of the world's population. Too often the wealthy build a wall around themselves to keep the poor away.
In 1986, the Nicaraguan project got a real boost when Jimmy Carter and President Ortega each laid a block, and together mounted a doorway in the new home of Enrique Torres. President Carter said the Habitat project "is a visible demonstration of the love of Christ." President Ortega responded, "My government affirms the freedom of religion, and putting Christian faith into working for justice and for a better way of life." That just might be the answer to the Nicaraguan question.
"Beauty for ashes and the oil of joy for mourning" - Isaiah would agree with Sey Chassler, writing in Parade Magazine: "For nations, the way to eliminate the ultimate threat is to feed the hungry, house the homeless, educate the ignorant and lift the oppressed. We must replace the idea of killing with the idea of living." Chassler continues, "We must stop thinking about life as some contest to be won but as an important work to be done together with our fellow human beings." Jesus would agree.
In 1982, the Habitat Newsletter printed this call to prayer:
God calls us to be personally involved in solving this great social problem in our world. We believe that we should not live contentedly in adequate homes, giving lip service only to the command of Jesus to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
The Habitat movement truly puts love into concrete action.
Tom McLaughlin, a Roman Catholic layman, tells of an experience in the early stages of the Savannah project. They had first dug the hole for the footings. McLaughlin and his buddy were waiting for the other volunteers, when the concrete truck arrived. The two old volunteers (age 65) began spreading the concrete alone. A man came by seeking work. They told him they were doing "God's work," that they were building a house for a poor family, using free labor. The man took off his jacket, and said to the truck driver, "Let's go to work." The laborer worked the concrete into place expertly, picked up his jacket and went on his way.
Cindy and her three children moved into the first Habitat house in Kansas City, Missouri. Here is her testimony:
I was eight months pregnant. I was tired. That night was unbelievable. I wanted to cry. Now we had something that was ours. It was beautiful. Windows open - no curtains up yet. Sheets were on the windows, but it was ours. I can't even express it. I'll never forget it. Oh Boy! God sent us this house.
When Christ came, he didn't just come and do nothing. He helped everybody he came in contact with. We should do the same.1
When volunteers in the Pensacola, Florida project had completed the renovations on a house for Penny Hyde, she wrote this letter:
Like so many in our world, I am a single parent with two small children - and not many support systems. For the past two years my life has suffered spiritual malnutrition. A feeling of death was in my life - we survived the best way we could. Our home was a reflection of this same death ...
After being interviewed and accepted, the changes began. We now had an front door which we could actually lock, panes in broken windows to keep out the cold, a repaired roof; doors inside our house; paint donated for spot-ridden walls; a beautiful donated rug; and best of all, we could actually turn on the faucets and have a decent bath, and broken pipes from the winter were repaired.
Thanks again, Habitat, again, and again. I would also like to give my "service of love" along with you, to help others the way you have given my family hope and love.
With much appreciation, gratitude
and love ...2
Jesus would have been interested in Annie Wofford. Her husband had walked out on her. Her house had gaping holes in the ceiling and floors, and no bathroom - not even an outside privy.
She said, "When it rains we can't find any place to stay. When the wind blows outside, it blows clothes and things all over the house. We used to have two chimneys, but one of the chimneys fell down. We just bundle up under quilts in cold spells." Later Annie and her five boys, ages five to eleven, moved into her new Habitat house. She wrote this to the newspaper:
Dear Jesus,
I love you with all my heart. I thank you for saving my soul. You changed me from my wicked ways ...
But Jesus, I thank you for sending your children to me, who are blessing me and my children with a new home. I know it was you Jesus, nobody but you. I thank you Jesus for Habitat ...3
And there is Gordon Cosby, and his Church of the Savior, Washington D.C. He and his church members have purchased several old run-down apartment houses in the slums of Washington. They have worked with the tenants in renovating them. They have developed Christian fellowship groups. And now their rent goes to purchase their apartments. People have changed. Hell has become somthing of heaven. The Holy Spirit, like Jesus, is very practical: "He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted."
1. Millard Fuller, No More Shacks, Word Books, copyright 1986, p. 175. Used by permission.
2. Ibid., pp. 178-79.
3. Ibid., pp. 186-87.
National Responsibility
By the Call of Christ, we are anointed to care for each other and for all God's children. We must be deaf, for we do not seem to hear the call. It is frightening to realize that Jim Wallace may be right in his Introduction to his book, The Call to Conversion:
Our affluence must be protected if we are to control the Lion's share of the world's resources and leave a billion people hungry. We cannot create an economy based on over-consumption without creating the weapons necessary to keep the poor masses at bay. Each year our affluence reaches new heights, our military arsenal keeps pace.
Wallace continues, "I have steadily become more convinced that understanding conversion is really the central issue for today's churches. Conversion understood apart from or outside history must be reappropriated and understood in direct relationship to that history." Wallace recognizes that with our present technology we have the ability to feed the world; but we don't want to. We are denying what God has anointed us to do. Wallace continues, "God's new order is so radically different from everything we are accustomed to that we must be spiritually remade before we are ready and equipped to participate in it."
There is a new attitude toward our world that is beginning to surface in our thinking. And it comes through a new surging of the Spirit of Jesus into our consciousness. This is our salvation and our eternal hope. It is the breakthrough of the Kingdom of Christ.
But our problem has been that our communion with God and with one another has been so small that we just have not had the strength or the resources even to begin to live the way Jesus calls us to. This is a call to a higher conversion, one that changes the world by truly changing us. Tragically our obsession has not been the Kingdom of God as reflected in the Sermon on the Mount, but "the social, economic, and military system of the United States," and our ingrown image of ourselves as a privileged people. That will neither save us personally, nor our nation, nor our world. It is sad to note, with Jim Wallace, that when our present government "tightens its belt, it tightens it around the necks of the poor." And we do not like to admit the possibility suggested by Wallace that "the definition of the 'free world' is any place where U.S. interests can operate freely; while many of those places are now ruled by dictatorships friendly to us but brutal to their own people."
Jim Wallace forces us to look at God's call to us as a nation, over against our present blindness and greed: "The spiritual crisis of the rich countries directly corresponds to the economic crisis of the poor countries. The rich hunger in spirit while the poor hunger for bread ... Conversion in our time is to liberate the poor and to make the blind to see. The poor need justice; the rich need restored sight."2 We ask ourselves: Where are the old American values of self-discipline and self-sacrifice, and sane spiritual leadership for the world?
Where does all this lead us? The lack of sensitivity to Christ has led the world to the awful brink of nuclear death. Wallace draws the contrast: "The sign of Christ is the Cross. The bomb is the countersign to the Cross; it arrogantly threatens to undo the work that the Cross has done. In the Cross all things are reconciled; in the bomb all things are destroyed. In the Cross, violence is defeated; in the bomb violence is victorious. In the Cross, Evil has been overcome; in the Bomb, Evil has dominion. In the Cross, Death is swallowed up; in the Bomb, Death reigns supreme."3 The cross or the bomb, which is our choice? Look at our world before you answer. We tremble on the brink!
1. Jim Wallace, The Call to Conversion, p. 46.
2. Ibid., p. 48.
3. Ibid., p. 88.
On to the City of God
In Christ, God became a servant among us. He anoints us to be servants of each other. We might not like it, but that is the way the universe is put together. Christ was born, Christ lived, Christ died, Christ arose, Christ will come again. Do we believe this? When we do, courage and strength and peace will be ours once more. The disciples became the people of the Resurrection. They began to produce the fruits of the Resurrection; they lived unafraid in the power of the Resurrection. When we act on this in daily life; when we are reconciled to all other human beings; when we are no longer slaves to economic systems; when we allow no other authority above the authority of God; when we tear down all walls that divide the human family; when we resist violence and take action for peace; when we show love in all our undertakings, then at least our part of the world has become truly Christian.
The Christian Church is beginning to grasp the demands of Christ. Here is how one denomination has responded:
A member of the United Methodist Church is to be a servant of Christ on mission in the local and world-wide community. This servanthood is performed in family life, daily work, recreation and social activities, responsible citizenship, the stewarship of property and accumulated resources, the issues of corporate life, and all attitudes toward other persons ... Each member is called upon to be a witness for Christ in the world, a light and leaven in society, and a reconciler in a culture of conflict. Each member is to identify with the agony and suffering of the world and to radiate and exemplify the Christ of hope ...
(United Methodist Book of Discipline)
It is now for us, by the power of Christ, to act out and live up to our professions. Then our world will be different. God waits. Humanity holds its breath.
In his inaugural address, Jesus was quoting from Isaiah and personally accepting the call:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of Vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn.
Jesus built his life upon this anointing.
For this purpose he has anointed us. Where do our talents and gifts fit into this mission? Where is our sphere of responsibility? This is our life. For this were we born.
Here God offers his hand of judgment and his hand of grace. Which do we take?
"Trumpeter, rally us, rally us, rally us - on to the City of God!"
A young man stood in the pulpit for his first sermon. The congregation was shocked by his words; but the young man was deadly serious. After the service they ran him out of town; and would have pushed him off a cliff - but he escaped.
Where did this happen? In Nazareth, 2,000 years ago. The young preacher's name was Jesus, and Nazareth was his home town. And that's only the beginning of the story.
The Call
The shocking text was simple enough. But when the young preacher claimed that it applied to him, personally; it was more than they could take.
Jesus quoted from Isaiah 61:1-2:
"The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord ... and he began to say unto them, This day is this scripture fulfilled in your ears."
(Luke 4:18-19, 21)
When we pray, "Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in Heaven," we are asking that those specific values of Isaiah (caring for the poor, the broken-hearted, the imprisoned) be realized in human relationships. This is clearly God's purpose, but our greed still prevents the realization.
God revealed this call to ministry through Isaiah; he intended for the Call to be lived out by Jesus, and then by his followers down through the ages. Jesus knew this; but the people didn't believe it. We can believe the message and do nothing about it. On the other hand, we can believe and make it come to pass in our lives. This God calls to us at Christmas and every day of the year. We are anointed.
Nothing less than the Spirit of God has anointed us. A flash from the mind of God has burned itself into the mind of man. What happened at Christmas was a breakthrough from heaven to reveal to us the purpose of our living. The voice of God demanding of us total compassion, because he is total compassion.
The Poor, the Afflicted, the Imprisoned
God has anointed you and me to "bring good tidings to the afflicted, to build up the broken hearted." Have we obeyed? Charles Colson was swept from the corruption of Watergate to the compassion of Prison Fellowship. He has brought good tidings and love and new life to thousands of prisoners. It might well be said of him as was said of another:
Long my imprisoned spirit lay
Fast bound in sin and nature's night.
Thine eye diffused a quickening ray,
I woke, the dungeon flamed with light.
My chains fell off, my heart was free,
I rose, went forth and followed thee.
Colson found himself worshiping God with all of life. He had been swept into costly love. He found himself, by the grace of Christ, bringing law and love into balance. He had discovered that compassion is the key to life.
Colson, in his book Loving God, illustrates the words of Isaiah. He tells a fantastic story of a Jewish doctor who, in the sufferings of a Siberian labor camp, discovered the cross and Christ. A Christian prisoner had witnessed to him. Now the Jewish Christian doctor wanted to share his faith with someone else. He was operating on a young prisoner who had intestinal cancer. In the care following the operation he witnessed to the desperately sick boy his own new-found faith. The Jewish prison doctor even confessed to the boy that much of his own suffering was deserved. The young patient could hardly believe that a Jew was confessing his sins, and blaming no one else for his sufferings. The next morning the doctor was found dead, having been beaten to death by the guards. The young prisoner survived and could never forget the faith and compassion of the doctor who had saved his life. He, too, became a Christian, and lived to tell the world about his faith. His name was Alexander Solzhenitsyn1. "He hath anointed us to bring good tidings to the afflicted, to bind up the broken-hearted."
The second purpose of Christ's anointing is "to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of prison to them that are bound." (Isaiah 61:1) In Loving God, Colson also tells of some Christians opening an Agape House for families of prisoners who had no place to stay when they came to visit. One woman in coming to Jefferson City to visit her husband in prison, would catch the last night bus from Kansas City. She would reach the grimey bus station in Jefferson City at two a.m. She then would carry her six-month-old baby to a downtown hotel, sneak through the lobby when no one was looking, into a rest room, and wedge herself and her baby into a toilet stall. There she would remain until eight o'clock in the morning, when the prison opened for visitors. These "Shadow people" were coming and going all of the time with no place to stay.
Some of the area churches decided to take some of these people into their homes, but there were too many of them. In 1980, two women formed the Agape House board. They wanted to reveal "the unconditional caring love of Jesus." Though they didn't have a nickel, they somehow bought an old boarding house near the prison for $46,000. The church members teamed up and put the old house in good condition. They hired Mildred Taylor as house manager. Mildred was a small Southern Baptist woman waiting for a call to serve God. She moved from South Carolina to Missouri and took over.
Mildred offered all her guests a warm welcome, a New Testament, clean sheets, towels, and room keys. She charged $3.00 a night, if they could pay it. If not, it was free. The door to her apartment was always open for conversation and counseling.
Sara was a young mother visiting her son in prison. She tapped on Mildred's door, and seemed comforted just to sit quietly with Mildred. A little later Mildred received this letter from Sara:
Dear Sister Mildred,
I told you how much staying at your house meant to me, but I did not tell you the most important thing. I read the Bible you gave me the very first night, but was too sick and heavy-eyed to finish. I had been trying to reaffirm my faith for months. The next night I had $13.00 left to get home on. Then I saw that Shirley was in much greater need than I was. I gave her half of my money, because I knew God would provide ... well, I went to bed feeling good that I could, with God's help, do something for someone else. I read more of the Bible and got to the page where you say the prayer to get saved, and I prayed and was washed clean of my sins! I prayed a lot before I went to sleep. Then the next day I told the Lord how sick and tired I was, and if it was His will that I might have a dry road home so it would not take me six hours. Before I went a mile the rain had stopped and I had sun all the way. I sang and praised God all the way home. The country had never looked so good.2
Another pretty tough guest at Agape House mused out loud: "I do know one thing though .. if God is real and He is good, He must be something like these ladies at Agape House." Colson is revealing in his book what it is like to carry out God's mission of love in the life of the world - especially in dealing with prisoners and their families.
But prison can be more than iron bars. It can be sickness, loneliness, poverty, guilt, depression, drugs, wrong sex, or many other kinds of enslavement. Recently I received a letter from a young girl from another state who was in Asheville in a mental hospital. I had no idea who she was. I quote from her letter:
Dear Rev. Tuttle,
I have been given your name by Tommy Tyson. I need your help ... I am suffering from depression and my doctor tells me I will be here several more months. I need prayer for inner healing. If you could come visit me, either call or write me. I really want to be healed.
I am a Christian, but I feel I have wandered from God. I need help in getting back to God.
Without healing, I may face a lifetime of mental illness. I know God doesn't want this. Sometimes I don't even know why I am depressed. We need to pray together to find the cause of my depression ...
Please write or call if you can help.
Sincerely yours,
With her doctor's permission I went to see her. We were given a small room in which to talk. She was almost hopeless with despair and feared that she would never be a normal person.
I was praying. I did want so deeply to help her find her freedom. "I'm so afraid," she said. I asked, "Do you believe that Christ has the power to heal you?" She gave a faltering, "Yes."
"Remember," I said, "God is not mad at you. He is worried about you. He doesn't want one of his children paralyzed by fear and depression. You have much to offer life. God needs you. He wants to heal you, and use you to help others.
"A long time ago, Jesus said to the paralyzed man: 'Son your sins are forgiven (Your break with God is healed), Take up your bed; get back into life. You are needed. God will enable you.' "
I shared with her an experience I had once had. My doctor, in diagnosis, had painted a dark picture. I was sick and frightened. I was on my knees praying, and I recalled what a sick man had said to Jesus: "Lord, if you will, you can heal me." And Jesus answered, "I will." And the man was healed. As the ancient scene ran through my mind, I heard quietly, but clearly, the whisper spoken to me, "I will." I was at peace. I went through the surgery with quiet confidence. I recall coming out from under the anesthesia and seeing the tall surgeon standing over me and saying: "You are clean. You are all right. You can live forever as far as I am concerned." I was alive again, by the touch of Christ. My depressed fiiend seemed to get the message.
We went on talking quietly. I felt the presence of Christ. I felt that we were being led. I reminded her of something Christ had said to his disciples just before he left them: "My Peace I leave with you. My Peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid." I suggested that Christ wanted to give her his peace as a sheer gift. He would give it; she could receive it, a loving gift from God. I thought I could see something moving in her subconscious mind. I could see indications of a new peace within her. The healing process had begun.
We had a quiet prayer; I gave her some helpful books. I left, feeling that Christ was releasing her. A month went by. I had been out of town several times and did not hear from her. When I called the hospital again, I learned she had been released soon after our conversation, and had gone home. There is power in this ministry Christ calls us to, if we depend on that power and love greater than our own, which Christ supplies with the call.
The Holy Spirit opened a very real prison for Peter and for Paul. But the real liberation came for Paul on the road to Damascus. Christ is still setting people free all over the world. We are all imprisoned, more or less, and we need the dynamic freedom that only Christ can give. Then we are anointed to share that new life with every one within our sphere of influence.
The Acceptable Year of the Lord
Isaiah's vision is many faceted. He continues, "He hath anointed us to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord." The Kingdom of God is coming. The Kingdom of God is within you. The Kingdom is not of this world. We pray, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven." Every year is "the acceptable year of the Lord." As each of us lives we are confronted by the acceptable year of the Lord; as we die in faith, we are ushered into that eternal reality of the acceptable day of the Lord. Even if we should stumble into nuclear war and blow the world to fiery bits, the Christ will be there waiting for those who love him. We can trust him. We accept C. S. Lewis' statement: "Christians never have to say Goodbye."
Charles Colson writes of Myrtle, a very sick grandmother who had accepted as her call the mission of writing to desperate prisoners who received no letters. She was "anointed" to write redemptively. One of the answers she received reveals the effectiveness of her ministry:
Dear Grandmother,
I received your letter and it made me sad when you wrote that you think you will not be alive much longer. I thought I would wait and come to see you and then tell you all you have meant to me; but I've changed my mind. I'm going to tell you now.
You've given me all the love and concern and care that I've missed for years, and my whole outlook on life has changed. You've made me realize that life is worth living and that it is not all bad ...
I didn't think I was capable of feeling love for anyone again but I know I love you as my very own precious grandmother.2
Here was the way that Myrtle worked: "When I get a letter, I read it, and when I answer it, I pray: 'Lord, you know what you want me to say. Now say it through me.' And you'd be surprised sometimes at the letters he writes."
The young businessman, David Chapman, had come a long way in his Christian experience. But now he faced his greatest challenge. It brought to his mind the passage in the Psalms that had grabbed him:
Defend the cause of the weak and fatherless;
Maintain the rights of the poor and oppressed.
Rescue the weak and the needy;
Deliver them from the hand of the wicked.
"What am I going to do?" he groaned.4 All of us should experience some agony as we face the oppression in today's world.
1. Taken from Loving God by Charles Colson. Copyright (c) 1987 by Charles W. Colson. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House.
2. Ibid., p. 186.
3. Ibid., p. 213.
4. Ibid., p. 244.
The Day of Accountability
At this point the inaugural address of Jesus takes a new direction: "He hath anointed me ... to proclaim the day of vengeance of our God." How can this be? God has been holding out his hand of grace - peace and healing. Now he thrusts forth his hand of accountability. Millions have not accepted their mission of love to their brothers. They have missed life's true meaning because they have rejected God's offer of meaningful living. Their rejection of God's will and their rebellion against him have released in them an inner hell, now and hereafter. They have voluntarily separated themselves from God and life. But that does not have to be the end. Even like the thief on the cross they can see how they have rebelled against truth and love, they can catch a new glimpse of life in the face of Jesus. They can turn their lives over to him, and be received once more into the Kingdom of God. But do not forget that we are accountable to the Master of the universe. Our whole destiny swings on this point. "God is not mocked. Whatsoever we sow, that shall we also reap." God is fair and just. God cannot put up with our robbing our brother of his birth-right, with our pushing for war and death in order to pile up riches; with our lying in order to grab more than our share; with our getting rich on the suffering of others (no matter who they are). The day of vengeance, the day of accountability is a reality. This is the time when God ultimately sets things right.
Colson points out the incipient evil in all of us:
What is it? Nothing less than evil within us, the dark side of the line that, Solzhenitsyn wrote, passes through the human heart.
Indeed, that is where the battle is being fought. It is not between good people and bad people, like a game of cops and robbers; it is not between good government and bad, like the U.S. and the Soviet Union. It is not being fought for mere national or international stakes. The war to end all wars is a battle for eternal stakes between spiritual forces - and it is being waged in you and in me.1
Jesus was clear in pointing out that those who acted with compassion toward their fellow human beings and those callously indifferent to the needs of others live a totally different life and come to a drastically different end:
Then shall the King say unto those on his right hand, "Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat. I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink. I was a stranger and ye took me in, naked, and ye clothed me, I was sick, and ye visited me, I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Then shall the King say also to them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire [the fire may be more of the spirit than of the body - but it burns with incredible heat], prepared for the devil and his angels: For I was an hungered, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not." (Matthew 25:34-43)
This, truly, is what life is all about: caring for each other, helping one another, loving one another. God cares, and he expects us to care. In his life on earth Jesus showed us how to care. We know, in our hearts, that this is the true way of life. Our relationship to God is determined by our love for our fellow human beings.
1. Charles Colson, Loving God, p. 104.
Social Justice
Reinhold Neibuhr bores in on this and reveals our problem:
However much human ingenuity may increase the treasures which nature provides for the satisfaction of human needs, they can never be sufficient to satisfy all human wants; for man, unlike other creatures, is gifted and cursed with an imagination which extends his appetites beyond the requirements of subsistence. Human society will never escape the problems of equitable distribution of physical and cultural goods which provide for the preservation and fulfillment of human life.1
Niebuhr is saying that because we are innately selfish we will always have to be disciplined from the outside or have a sufficient inner discipline to care for our brothers and sisters. Christian love and caring may be foolishness to the pagan world around us, but it is the only road to ultimate justice and the Kingdom of God. Niebuhr further suggests that, though educators continually insist that justice through voluntary cooperation depends only on a more adequate educational enterprise, the facts indicate that mere education has not produced the social good will powerful enough to insure the rights and needs of others. The spirit of humanity has to insure this ultimate justice. Only a drastic spiritual awakening will guarantee such just relationships.
The inability of human beings to transcend their own interests, sufficiently to see the interests of their fellows as clearly as they do their own, reveals the necessity of a greater force to bring about this justice. That force may be revolution, government compulsion, or conscious obedience to God. Conscious obedience to God in social justice will of necessity have to be implemented both by individual Christian compassion and by Christian government participation. The communist experiment has proved that revolution without Christian compassion and a Christian sense of total fairness does not produce justice. Neither does Democracy work without our overwhelming Christian compulsion for total justice for all its citizens. The compelling self-interest of those in power often undermines compassion; and the privileged groups that inevitably arise in all known societies usually become ingrown and block the freeflow of justice.
At the beginning of the twentieth century Walter Rauschenbusch caught a vision of social justice and saw its relationship to Christian experience and Christian practice. He wrote powerfully in this field and has had a great influence on the development of the Christian social conscience. He saw that such a great task demands a great faith. A great faith directs our "conscious energies" and our "subconscious drifts." In the last forty years our nation has made great progress in social justice (although at the present moment it seems to be in a blind and selfish reversal).
We universally praise the Golden Rule but it collapses in action, because we are tempted to unfair gain, or blocked by the fear of losing our personal advantage. The old prophets in their cry for justice were inspired by the Living God. What is our Kingdom? Is it the kingdom of mammon or the Kingdom of Christ? At times we don't even know. Jesus made the will of his heavenly Father the content and purpose of his life, and calls us to make it ours. He repudiated revolution and chose to build his Kingdom on compassion, justice, and sacrifice. Jesus laid the foundations of modern democracy, and without his Spirit democracy collapses in greed. Christ was anointed to champion the cause of the poor, the captives, the blind, the bruised and the crushed. We too are anointed as Christians to the same task. But many have lost Christ in the mad rush for still more property, still more dress, still another automobile, still more sumptuous meals. Our society collapses in selfishness, and God holds us responsible.
Christ was high-powered energy from first to last. His death itself was action. It was the most terrific blow that organized evil ever got. He always moved with a purpose and his purpose was always the Kingdom of God.2
His cross was the climax of evil in the world; his resurrection was the root of ultimate righteousness. Our aim as Christians is impossible without the grace of God; without the continuous action of the Holy Spirit, and our obedience. That aim is no less than a divine social order established on earth.
We contemplate the possibility of an ethical commonwealth, a Kingdom of virtue, a society of mutual caring. The judgment of God blocks our selfish obsessions and our blind commitments to destructive force.
This is not "pie in the sky;" this is the realization of a way of righteousness here that grows into an eternal Kingdom. As Rauschenbusch put it:
This joyful religious acceptance of the present life involves no surrender of the life to come. When our work for God is done and we are tired, when our growth in God has exhausted the opportunities offered by the present life, we can lie down secure in the hope that our life will unfold in greater fulness in a new environment ... But for the present we are here ... The hope of the Kingdom of God makes this earth the theater of action, and turns the full force of religious will and daring toward the present tasks.3
With business, financial, and political-military force gone wild, let us break with our social evils of injustice and greed, not by Communism's destructive revolution but by a real Christian faith and love in action, under the power and direction of almighty God. Now! Too often the industrial-military complex imposes its point of view on the nation and rushes us toward the brink of war instead of toward the paths of peace and constructive relationships. This is why God himself takes a hand more often than we think.
Industrial, financial, and political leaders are temporarily in charge of God's vineyard. God has a right to send an urgent word to inquire for his share of the output under their management. Rauschenbusch adds, "If they cannot cleanse our industry of despotism and exploitation, they must not be surprised if God terminates their lease of power."4
Occasionally a great industrial enterprise will get the message and see the vision. In 1911 the Diamond Match Company allowed its competition the use of sesquisulphide, on which it held a patent, in order to put a stop to the terrible phosphorus poisoning among workers in the match industry. They voluntarily set the health of workers above their monopoly of profit.
Rauschenbusch suggests that God's country begins where men love to serve their fellows. The Devil's country begins where people devour people. It is of interest to observe that "Godliness brings forth wealth, but the daughter devours the mother." The only idolatry that really threatens Christians today is setting mammon above God. Jesus seeks to found on earth the reign of God among us.
True Christians will make the social and economic order work with justice for all. Once at an Oxford University seminar I got to know a Methodist pastor from Czechoslovakia. He told of the embezzlement of funds by the manager of the leading Soviet industry in his city. He was disposed of. The Assistant Manager was installed in his place. He too embezzled the funds. He was disposed of. The authorities came to my friend, the pastor, saying, "We have been watching your people. They are honest. They can be trusted. Can you recommend one of your members for this position?" A Methodist Christian was given the position. The only thing that will last and the only thing that really works now is the reign of God (the Christ-Spirit) in human relations. The reign of God is more powerful and more workable than socialism, more powerful than democracy.
1. Reinhold Niebuhr, Moral Man and Immoral Society, p. 1.
2. Walter Rauschenbusch, Christianizing the Social Order, p. 67.
3. Ibid. p. 97.
4. Ibid. p. 290.
Beauty for Ashes
Our text from Isaiah closes: The Lord hath anointed me to "Comfort all that mourn ... to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness." (Isaiah 61:2-3) Jesus took this anointing seriously. He acted upon it, and calls us to do the same. Isn't it beautiful what God wants for his children? But how does it work in today's world?
A recent book, No More Shacks, gives us some creative insights. It's the story of the Habitat movement, the building of housing for the poor, all over the world. It shames us to realize that while one house in Denver recently sold for $19,000,000, millions of poor in the world have no home. If you own your own home, you are better off than 95% of the world's population. Too often the wealthy build a wall around themselves to keep the poor away.
In 1986, the Nicaraguan project got a real boost when Jimmy Carter and President Ortega each laid a block, and together mounted a doorway in the new home of Enrique Torres. President Carter said the Habitat project "is a visible demonstration of the love of Christ." President Ortega responded, "My government affirms the freedom of religion, and putting Christian faith into working for justice and for a better way of life." That just might be the answer to the Nicaraguan question.
"Beauty for ashes and the oil of joy for mourning" - Isaiah would agree with Sey Chassler, writing in Parade Magazine: "For nations, the way to eliminate the ultimate threat is to feed the hungry, house the homeless, educate the ignorant and lift the oppressed. We must replace the idea of killing with the idea of living." Chassler continues, "We must stop thinking about life as some contest to be won but as an important work to be done together with our fellow human beings." Jesus would agree.
In 1982, the Habitat Newsletter printed this call to prayer:
God calls us to be personally involved in solving this great social problem in our world. We believe that we should not live contentedly in adequate homes, giving lip service only to the command of Jesus to love our neighbors as we love ourselves.
The Habitat movement truly puts love into concrete action.
Tom McLaughlin, a Roman Catholic layman, tells of an experience in the early stages of the Savannah project. They had first dug the hole for the footings. McLaughlin and his buddy were waiting for the other volunteers, when the concrete truck arrived. The two old volunteers (age 65) began spreading the concrete alone. A man came by seeking work. They told him they were doing "God's work," that they were building a house for a poor family, using free labor. The man took off his jacket, and said to the truck driver, "Let's go to work." The laborer worked the concrete into place expertly, picked up his jacket and went on his way.
Cindy and her three children moved into the first Habitat house in Kansas City, Missouri. Here is her testimony:
I was eight months pregnant. I was tired. That night was unbelievable. I wanted to cry. Now we had something that was ours. It was beautiful. Windows open - no curtains up yet. Sheets were on the windows, but it was ours. I can't even express it. I'll never forget it. Oh Boy! God sent us this house.
When Christ came, he didn't just come and do nothing. He helped everybody he came in contact with. We should do the same.1
When volunteers in the Pensacola, Florida project had completed the renovations on a house for Penny Hyde, she wrote this letter:
Like so many in our world, I am a single parent with two small children - and not many support systems. For the past two years my life has suffered spiritual malnutrition. A feeling of death was in my life - we survived the best way we could. Our home was a reflection of this same death ...
After being interviewed and accepted, the changes began. We now had an front door which we could actually lock, panes in broken windows to keep out the cold, a repaired roof; doors inside our house; paint donated for spot-ridden walls; a beautiful donated rug; and best of all, we could actually turn on the faucets and have a decent bath, and broken pipes from the winter were repaired.
Thanks again, Habitat, again, and again. I would also like to give my "service of love" along with you, to help others the way you have given my family hope and love.
With much appreciation, gratitude
and love ...2
Jesus would have been interested in Annie Wofford. Her husband had walked out on her. Her house had gaping holes in the ceiling and floors, and no bathroom - not even an outside privy.
She said, "When it rains we can't find any place to stay. When the wind blows outside, it blows clothes and things all over the house. We used to have two chimneys, but one of the chimneys fell down. We just bundle up under quilts in cold spells." Later Annie and her five boys, ages five to eleven, moved into her new Habitat house. She wrote this to the newspaper:
Dear Jesus,
I love you with all my heart. I thank you for saving my soul. You changed me from my wicked ways ...
But Jesus, I thank you for sending your children to me, who are blessing me and my children with a new home. I know it was you Jesus, nobody but you. I thank you Jesus for Habitat ...3
And there is Gordon Cosby, and his Church of the Savior, Washington D.C. He and his church members have purchased several old run-down apartment houses in the slums of Washington. They have worked with the tenants in renovating them. They have developed Christian fellowship groups. And now their rent goes to purchase their apartments. People have changed. Hell has become somthing of heaven. The Holy Spirit, like Jesus, is very practical: "He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted."
1. Millard Fuller, No More Shacks, Word Books, copyright 1986, p. 175. Used by permission.
2. Ibid., pp. 178-79.
3. Ibid., pp. 186-87.
National Responsibility
By the Call of Christ, we are anointed to care for each other and for all God's children. We must be deaf, for we do not seem to hear the call. It is frightening to realize that Jim Wallace may be right in his Introduction to his book, The Call to Conversion:
Our affluence must be protected if we are to control the Lion's share of the world's resources and leave a billion people hungry. We cannot create an economy based on over-consumption without creating the weapons necessary to keep the poor masses at bay. Each year our affluence reaches new heights, our military arsenal keeps pace.
Wallace continues, "I have steadily become more convinced that understanding conversion is really the central issue for today's churches. Conversion understood apart from or outside history must be reappropriated and understood in direct relationship to that history." Wallace recognizes that with our present technology we have the ability to feed the world; but we don't want to. We are denying what God has anointed us to do. Wallace continues, "God's new order is so radically different from everything we are accustomed to that we must be spiritually remade before we are ready and equipped to participate in it."
There is a new attitude toward our world that is beginning to surface in our thinking. And it comes through a new surging of the Spirit of Jesus into our consciousness. This is our salvation and our eternal hope. It is the breakthrough of the Kingdom of Christ.
But our problem has been that our communion with God and with one another has been so small that we just have not had the strength or the resources even to begin to live the way Jesus calls us to. This is a call to a higher conversion, one that changes the world by truly changing us. Tragically our obsession has not been the Kingdom of God as reflected in the Sermon on the Mount, but "the social, economic, and military system of the United States," and our ingrown image of ourselves as a privileged people. That will neither save us personally, nor our nation, nor our world. It is sad to note, with Jim Wallace, that when our present government "tightens its belt, it tightens it around the necks of the poor." And we do not like to admit the possibility suggested by Wallace that "the definition of the 'free world' is any place where U.S. interests can operate freely; while many of those places are now ruled by dictatorships friendly to us but brutal to their own people."
Jim Wallace forces us to look at God's call to us as a nation, over against our present blindness and greed: "The spiritual crisis of the rich countries directly corresponds to the economic crisis of the poor countries. The rich hunger in spirit while the poor hunger for bread ... Conversion in our time is to liberate the poor and to make the blind to see. The poor need justice; the rich need restored sight."2 We ask ourselves: Where are the old American values of self-discipline and self-sacrifice, and sane spiritual leadership for the world?
Where does all this lead us? The lack of sensitivity to Christ has led the world to the awful brink of nuclear death. Wallace draws the contrast: "The sign of Christ is the Cross. The bomb is the countersign to the Cross; it arrogantly threatens to undo the work that the Cross has done. In the Cross all things are reconciled; in the bomb all things are destroyed. In the Cross, violence is defeated; in the bomb violence is victorious. In the Cross, Evil has been overcome; in the Bomb, Evil has dominion. In the Cross, Death is swallowed up; in the Bomb, Death reigns supreme."3 The cross or the bomb, which is our choice? Look at our world before you answer. We tremble on the brink!
1. Jim Wallace, The Call to Conversion, p. 46.
2. Ibid., p. 48.
3. Ibid., p. 88.
On to the City of God
In Christ, God became a servant among us. He anoints us to be servants of each other. We might not like it, but that is the way the universe is put together. Christ was born, Christ lived, Christ died, Christ arose, Christ will come again. Do we believe this? When we do, courage and strength and peace will be ours once more. The disciples became the people of the Resurrection. They began to produce the fruits of the Resurrection; they lived unafraid in the power of the Resurrection. When we act on this in daily life; when we are reconciled to all other human beings; when we are no longer slaves to economic systems; when we allow no other authority above the authority of God; when we tear down all walls that divide the human family; when we resist violence and take action for peace; when we show love in all our undertakings, then at least our part of the world has become truly Christian.
The Christian Church is beginning to grasp the demands of Christ. Here is how one denomination has responded:
A member of the United Methodist Church is to be a servant of Christ on mission in the local and world-wide community. This servanthood is performed in family life, daily work, recreation and social activities, responsible citizenship, the stewarship of property and accumulated resources, the issues of corporate life, and all attitudes toward other persons ... Each member is called upon to be a witness for Christ in the world, a light and leaven in society, and a reconciler in a culture of conflict. Each member is to identify with the agony and suffering of the world and to radiate and exemplify the Christ of hope ...
(United Methodist Book of Discipline)
It is now for us, by the power of Christ, to act out and live up to our professions. Then our world will be different. God waits. Humanity holds its breath.
In his inaugural address, Jesus was quoting from Isaiah and personally accepting the call:
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of Vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn.
Jesus built his life upon this anointing.
For this purpose he has anointed us. Where do our talents and gifts fit into this mission? Where is our sphere of responsibility? This is our life. For this were we born.
Here God offers his hand of judgment and his hand of grace. Which do we take?
"Trumpeter, rally us, rally us, rally us - on to the City of God!"
