Don't let the Son go down in your wrath

Isn’t the fast I choose to break the chains of wickedness, to untie the ropes of the yoke, to set the oppressed free, and to tear off every yoke? Is it not to share your bread with the hungry, to bring the poor and homeless into your house, to clothe the naked when you see him, and not to ignore your own flesh and blood? (Isa 58)

I have this ache … somewhere between the pit of my stomach and my soul.

Recently we put a garbage can outside a local store with a sign asking for help for the needy – donations of winter clothing and blankets. The first few times I saw garbage in there I was a bit upset, but no one had donated stuff. I added “Not a trash can” to the sign. The garbage dumping continued. Then people started donating … and people still threw their garbage in, on top of the clothing. The garbage included coffee and latte drinks, and they stained the clothes. I was fuming. Absolutely livid. How could anyone be so care-less?? Other events followed, and it brings me to this blog.

If our ‘religion’ – our confession, our salvation, our belief system, our doctrine, our praxis – does not include actively lightening the burdens of the oppressed and abused and homeless and hurting, our religion is worthless. Zip. Without value. Useless. Pie-in-the-sky. Bogus. Posturing. Pretense.

I’m angry. One of my beloved friends tried (in vain) to turn me off it. Said I shouldn’t be like that; it gives people the wrong impression. I’m flat-out done with impressions. Done it too long. Impressions are for impressionists, politicians, lawyers … preachers?

I’m angry. I think of the passage about the sun going down on your anger – I’ve not been successful at that.

I’m angry. I think I want to be angry. Maybe it’s my own history, my particular baggage, that gives power to that anger, makes it potent and energizing. I don’t know … But I’m angry. I’m angry at me for wasting so much of my life (and those were the ‘prime’ years too); for focusing on being ‘right’ and hurting so many in the pursuit; for thinking what I ‘know’ was the important thing, the key to success in spiritual things. I was dead wrong on all of that, and I’m angry at me for it.

I’m angry at others too: the theologians and college professors and preachers and teachers. They have misdirected the sheep, and led them down a veritable rabbit trail, chasing coo-coo birds and boogeymen.  They are the very ones that should know (like me …). They have neglected the spirit of the gospel in pursuit of … theology? the ‘salvation’ of souls? numbers? the accolade of the intelligentsia? certainly the fame and fortune available on ‘christian’ tv and ‘christian’ books.

The pursuit of materiality has become the new religion. It has robbed us of our souls and made some rich, many poor. The grand tragedy is that ‘christianity’ has enjoined that race, and been engulfed in the absurdity of our world, instead of being the rebel-culture that points to the kingdom.

We have turned the good news into a strategy instead of living it out in the lives of the very ones Jesus died for. Sad, that. Jesus’ heart is pure love, for he is the perfect expression of God himself, and God is love at the core of his being. That love demands service for the benefit of humanity, at personal cost, for the kingdom’s sake. Period.

We have this thing .. we ascribe harshness, and wrath, and anger to the ‘god’ of the Old (First) Testament, love to the ‘god; of the New, as if they are different gods. But the Isaiah quote above is just that god. Here’s more …

This is what the Lord says: Administer justice and righteousness. Rescue the victim of robbery from the hand of his oppressor. Don’t exploit or brutalize the foreigner, the fatherless, or the widow. (Jer 22.3)

For the Lord your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awesome God, showing no partiality and taking no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner, giving him food and clothing. You also must love the foreigner, since you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. (Deut 10.17-19)

“I will come to you in judgment, and I will be ready to witness against sorcerers and adulterers; against those who swear falsely; against those who oppress the widow and the fatherless, and cheat the wage earner; and against those who deny justice to the foreigner. They do not fear Me,” says the Lord of Hosts. (Mal 3.5)

There are many other like-minded passages. This is the god of that Testament. And that is what he says we must do. We halt the posturing – the sacrifices, and fasts, and posturing piety – and we do the heart of God by loving our neighbours, regardless of age, colour, sex, nationality, religion … regardless. We fill up the cup of Jesus’ suffering by laying our lives out for the good of others. Then we have the basis on which to sacrifice, and fast.

As for Jesus… well, visit the Beatitudes. Read them again. Watch him in the Gospels as he describes his mother and children as those standing around him, not his physical family. Observe as he heals, sometimes battling oppressive powers to do so (as with the blind man whom he had to work on more than once, who could only see men in the shape of trees at the first attempt). He feeds hungry people. He drives away demonic forces. He raises the dead. His was a healing ministry, a work of bringing relief and restoration.

Was he teaching anyone in that? Is the so-called ‘great commission’ influenced by that? Were the apostles and disciples to emulate him in that? Is he our example? Or only our saviour? Are we his disciples, or are we not?

I’m angry that I have walked right past this, like the proverbial priest passing the half-dead man on the other side of the road. I have neglected the active element of my faith. And faith apart from works is dead dead dead.

I’m angry. I want to stop being angry at some point. Seems to me the only way to achieve that is to do what I should have been doing all along: find the hurting, pray for God to lead me there, and to help. Only then do I have the right to speak Jesus into their lives.

James says: Pure and undefiled religion before our God and Father is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself unstained by the world. (1.26,27)

He also says, My dearly loved brothers, understand this: Everyone must be quick to hear, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for man’s anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness. (1.19,20)… .. .

“Lord … I believe. Help my unbelief …”