A Crowd & A Cripple

Mark 2:1-4 And when he returned to Capernaum after some days, it was reported that he was at home. And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them. And they came, bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men. And when they could not get near him because of the crowd, they removed the roof above him, and when they had made an opening, they let down the bed on which the paralytic lay.

There are two sets of people in this story. The first set, the majority, is a crowd that has gathered at what seems to be someone's home to listen to Jesus teach. The second set is a group of ragamuffins who were committed to any length, including digging a hole through a roof, to realize their NEED for the very TOUCH of Jesus to heal their broken crippled friend. Jesus loved, and gave to both crowds the need they had come to have fulfilled. To the crowd he gave teaching, the cripple he gave a new life.

There are two sets of people in the story that is God's church. The first set, the majority, is a crowd that gathers in what seems to be a public facility to listen to the teachings of Jesus. The second set is a group of ragamuffins who will go to any length, including digging their way out of the world around them, to realize their NEED for the very TOUCH of Jesus to heal their broken crippled lives. Jesus loves, and gives to both crowds the need they come to have fulfilled. To the crowd he gives teaching, the cripples he gives a new life.

Set around Capernum that day is a world that needs Jesus' touch. This story is about poverty. It is about the poverty of the crowd, the poverty of their neighbors, the poverty of broken lives. The crowd can not see their own poverty, the crowd can not see the poverty around them. That motley crew seeking Jesus' touch feel the pulse of poverty. They feel the poverty of their friends crippled legs. They tear the roof off the status quo of the crowd around them, to bring that poverty before Jesus. Jesus doesn't see a ruined roof instead he touches and heals the poverty.

Set around us is a world that needs Jesus' touch. Our story is about poverty. It is about the poverty of the churches, the poverty of our friends, the poverty of our world. It is about the broken lives in the parts of town good Christians avoid. It is about the brokeness hidden behind the shuttered windows of good Christian homes. It is about the hopelessness that leads to an AIDS epidemic, and a nation of orphans in Swaziland. It is about the economic inequality that leads to Jihad in the Arabic world. It is about the oppression of girls in the Asian sex trade industry. It is about the forgotten children enslaved to produce our chocolate and our apparel. It is about the lepers dying on the streets of Calcutta. It is about... Poverty is the all pervasive state of a fallen world. The crowd can not see their own poverty, the crowd can not see the poverty all around them. Those seeking Jesus' touch feel the pulse of poverty. They feel the poverty of an entire world fallen from life, community, and peace with it's God. These vagabonds tear the roof off the status quo of the church around them, to bring that poverty before Jesus. Jesus doesn't see a ruined roof instead he touches and heals the poverty.

Which set is your life in? Are you the crowd who goes to church on Sunday and Wednesday to get a dose of Jesus' words, or are you a rouge to this world, who is willing to dig through the barriers separating you and the brokenness of an impoverished world around to altogether get to the abundant life that comes from the healing touch of Jesus? Which set reflects your church? Are you a crowd of listeners, or a brotherhood of friends willing to carry each others brokenness to Jesus?

One set got a goodly lesson that day, the other got a new life.

Poverty and Success

Last Friday Karen Gerber posted her thoughts about success and organic churches. I was thinking about that post as I penned this sermon.

Poverty and Success

I really did not go the same direction with these thoughts as she started the discussion, but I think if you listen and read her post, you can see the similarity in the ideals behind the thinking.

The Poverty Of Our Church

"Standing with God and the crushed and bleeding slave on this occasion, I will, in the name of humanity which is outraged, in the name of liberty which is fettered, in the name of the Constitution and the Bible which are disregarded and trampled upon, dare to call in question and to denounce, with all the emphasis I can command, everything that serves to perpetuate slavery-the great sin and shame of America! "I will not equivocate, I will not excuse"; I will use the severest language I can command; and yet not one word shall escape me that any man, whose judgment is not blinded by prejudice, shall not confess to be right and just...." Fredrick Douglas Independence Day 1841

As I read Proverbs 28 today I continued to reflect on the same issue that has troubled me for a week now. I continued to wonder what power God's people at Cardinal Drive and everywhere would bear if our focus shifted away from the "influence" of our church in our community, to the impact of our ministry to the Kingdom. As members of our church continue to support slavery, and the exploitation of the poor through their consumerism, the blood of those poor, the sweat of the impoverished and the tears of the exploited testifies against us to God.


Proverbs 28:27

He who gives to the poor will lack nothing,
but he who closes his eyes to them receives many curses.

One of our elders asked my opinion of the lack of involvement present in our church body. Our church at Cardinal Drive, and the other churches I have observed around me, suffer from apathy and disengagement because there is no joy in the pursuit of carnal kingdoms under the auspice of spirituality. The curses that fill our churches, and fill the lives of our church members, can be seen as a consequence to our lifestyle pursuits. The fact that the "Bible [is] disregarded and trampled upon." is as much true now as when Fredrick Douglas spoke on domestic slavery, though better disguised through buzz words like "globalization".

However, our callous blindness to those suffering in poverty is not just a global ignorance but an unwillingness to deal with our domestic neighbors that suffer from the darkness of poverty, both fiscal and emotional. This issue is a deep spiritual sickness in our culture. Philosopher John Berger famously noted that as a people we have realigned our priorities to further marginalize those suffering in poverty.

"The poverty of our century is unlike that of any other. It is not, as poverty was before, the result of natural scarcity, but of a set of priorities imposed upon the rest of the world by the rich. Consequently, the modern poor are not pitied, but written off as trash."

Even the "enemy of God" Charles Darwin, in his journal "The voyage of the Beagle," understood the defiance to our creator that is present when we ignore poverty as he wrote, " If the misery of the poor be caused not by the laws of nature, but by our institutions, great is our sin."

As God's people we have become so entrenched in lifestyle choices that compel us to blindness toward the poor. Christ's compassion was deeply attuned to the suffering of the impoverished, both fiscally and emotionally, he encountered. Until we deal with the root self obsession that is an infection present in our churches, we can not correctly address the symptomatic apathy and disengagement that troubles our leadership and plagues our membership. Our spiritual impoverishment, to be cursed for this blindness, is a far more grave gallows for our future.

I personally must continue to be more transformed by the example of my contemporary heroes and friends, the Fitzjerrells, the Nowells and the Browns, to choose the wealth that comes from being a blessing to the poor.


Meant To Live

Have We Made God Deaf?

Several years ago when our good friends were dealing with a pregnancy that medically would not end well. I often questioned God and his providence as he ignored our cries for a miracle that would changed the verdict of this medical reality. I trust God and his providence, but still the scars cut deep as I mourned with my friend because of God's refusal to intervene.

This week I rejoiced with my friends Benny and Niki as God provided an amazing miracle in healing their son. These friends son, have dealt with a crippling milk allergy that has caused him to live in fear of the consequences of food. I wept as I shared in their joy. My heart swelled as I considered the possibility of a life without Celiac.

Still the old wounds creep to the surface, and the old scars hurt deep as the barometer of my heart leans toward hope in the news of my friend's child. Academically, I absolutely believe in the power of miracles. Practically, I challenge God why he chooses to heal a milk allergy, and leave another child to be born still.

As I was struggling with these conflicting feelings toward God, I ran across this verse in my daily study.

Proverbs 21:13

If a man shuts his ears to the cry of the poor,
he too will cry out and not be answered.

I must admit, I "heard" nothing else that chapter contained. My eyes continued reading, but my heart, my mind, and my spirit stopped right there at verse 13. I found myself unable to think about anything else. I have found myself unable to move on in my thoughts for the six days since I first read that passage.

The question that keeps recurring over and over in my head is, "Have we made God deaf?" The miracles of the first years of the church are AMAZING. They stand as AWESOME praise to God. Yet, that power, that presence of God's power seems to be unfound in our world. I am left to wonder, "Where did God's power go?"

Then I hear the amazing miracle of my friends who have surrender the comfort and convenience of many career paths available to them, and instead chosen to serve as missionaries among the homeless teenagers in Boulder. The have given up the hope of the American dream, for the hope of rescuing teens struggling with physical, emotional, and spiritual addictions through the redemption of Christ blood. They have not been building the Nowell kingdom in the suburbs, instead they have been building Christ kingdoms in the dark places of American's urban refuse.

Perhaps God's power isn't present in his people like it was in the early church, because his people are present in the places where his power has always dwelt; with the helpless, the hopeless, the rejects.

I want to be where God's power is.