Luke 3:14
“Likewise the soldiers asked him, saying, “And what shall we
do?” So he said to them, “Do not intimidate anyone or accuse falsely, and be
content with your wages.”
The message of the gospel demands a response that affects
every part of who we are. How is it that being raised going to church has
created a cold, religion based group of “Christians?” We act as though going to
church once or twice a week is enough to have a rich relationship with Jesus.
The mentality of Sunday morning Christianity has saturated the way we do everything
from devo time to washing the dishes after dinner. We act as if our heavenly
Father is a vending machine of blessings, just begging us to allow Him to give
us a new job, car, or house or even certain spiritual gifts that we think we
need. We act as if Jesus is a backseat driver instead of the one who made the
car and is the only one who actually knows how to drive it. We have adopted
this false theology that Jesus is along for the ride wherever we take Him when
in reality that is never the way it was meant to be. So where did the church
get it wrong? Should we sing Psalms for worship on Sunday mornings? I mean,
David was called a man after God’s own heart and that’s what he sang so maybe
that’s the magic solution. Or maybe everyone should be in one sanctuary
together because if the message given is good enough for the adults its good
enough for the children, none of that diluted nonsense they teach children in
Sunday school! Perhaps the pastor should wear jeans and a button down so he’s
more relatable to the middle class than if he were to wear a full suit and tie.
Oh I know, the worship leader should probably always fit the mold of being a
young hipster who wears skinny jeans. Or perhaps the scriptures being taught on
should be projected onto a screen, no, wait, that would encourage people to
leave their bibles at home… How, then, will they know where the book of
Ecclesiastes is?!
The church has stopped asking “and what shall we do?” We
have given up asking the question that leads to actual solutions and have
instead started asking “and what will they do?” I understand that not everyone
is called to adopt, but for the sake of using an example from my own life I’m
going to use this. For 6 years now my family has looked different than most.
When we go out to dinner we get weird looks, questions, and comments. The
question we rarely get, though, is “and what shall we do?” The church as a
whole does not ask this question nearly enough when their eyes are opened to
what goes on every day in their own backyards. You may not be called to adopt,
but I can assure you that you are called to do something. Psalm 10:14 tells us
that God is the “helper of the fatherless” and as His hands and feet our job is
clear, we are to love those who are helpless. And yet the foster care system is
still overrun with children who no one will call their own. The church is big
enough, enough people know what Jesus teaches, but not enough people ask the
right question. We turn our eyes away, say a prayer that the ambiguous someone
will love these children, and move on with our lives. The tragedy of this lack
of action in our own life is not something we should stand for. I encourage you
to ask the question that leads to a necessary action.
