A diversion

When I was writing that last post it went on too long and I go off on this diversion...so here it is.

Don't get me wrong--I do not want to malign St. Francis. But think about what he did to preach the gospel without words...he gave up the life of Italian nobility and he vowed to not own anything except for the tunic of coarse cloth, a rope to tie it around himself, sandals, and a begging bowl. He was even known to give up these things to help others. He reached out to the lowest members of society--lepers. And he lived the life of a vagabond. In fact if we saw St. Francis on the street today, most of us would consider it "lifestyle evangelism" to give him a few bucks.

In addition, he used words. He was clear about what he expected of his disciples, he taught, and he proclaimed truth in Christ.

But he didn't just do all of this to shock people and to make people ask him what it's all about. He spoke to real issues of his time--issues of inequality, materialism, greed. He did this to renounce the ways of the world, and to bring God's message to men. He left the cloister. He rejected the walls the church had built up around men of faith. And he walked, and walked, and walked, and talked to God, and talked to men, and showed people what real life can be. And when people came to him he taught them, and led them, and made them disciples of Christ.

So I think--if you're going to quote St Francis, you'd better be willing to make your life real. And to seek God's will, and to speak to the issues of our time and not hide behind the walls of the church. To get dirty, to get sick, to lose things, to lose time, to lose opportunity, to lose life.

Word? or Deed?--what's it gonna be

We are called to two different things: To "feed the hungry, give water to the thirsty, invite the stranger in, clothe the naked, visit the sick and imprisoned." And to "go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you."

St Francis said: "Preach the gospel always and if necessary use words." The idea I think is that if you live your life in a Christ centered way people will see the light in you and be drawn to Christ. Then, as I have heard it said in many Christian circles, people will ask you, why are you so good--and you can then use words. As far as I can tell that's a load of hooey. I know that I for one have never been asked--why are you so great. That's probably because I'm arrogant, caustic, and, in fact, not all that good. But how about a show of hands. How often is it really that this works?

Words are necessary. I think it is absolutely essential to any mission to speak truth and to make clear the purpose of what we do. I think that most of the time when people begin to talk a lot about lifestyle evangelism (the idea you can convince someone that God exists by the way you live) what they mean is "I'm scared to acknowledge Christ because I think people might think less of me." At least that's what I mean when I start talking about lifestyle evangelism.

And Deeds are necessary. Christ called us to serve the down and out, the have-nots, the children, the needy. Over and over and over again he preached that message. And I don't think the point of good works is to bring people to Christ. He draws us to himself. The point of good works is to express our love for those who are made in the image of God (i.e. all human beings).

Words are not sufficient. James said faith without works is dead. We have to act on our faith and we have to be willing.

Deeds are not sufficient. Without faith, good works are just that. There are lots of people out there who do lots of good things without having any sort of faith. But ultimately they are still broken, without hope.

I guess what I'm trying to get at is that in Christ we are filled to overflowing with love for the things that God loves, and that the expression of that is to desire good things for those God has created. And so we preach the gospel to bring life and healing to the dead and broken, and we feed, heal, clothe etc those who cannot make it on their own. Word and Deed are the same thing. They are both essential and important.

In fact I think I can go so far as to say that without the other each one individually is exposed as a lie. We convince ourselves that we're ok--I preach the gospel, I don't have to feed the hungry--or I do good things for people and lead a good life, I don't have to preach the gospel. That is a lie. We are called by Christ to both feed the hungry and feed the hungry.