Here's the church, here's the steeple, open the doors and...

One definition of community is a gathering of people who have a common goal and a sense of belonging.

Why is it in a church that sense of belonging doesn't seem to last or to meet the real issues people have? Do we need more programs, more teachers, more counselors, more activism?

Dietrich Bonhoeffer analyzes some of these aspects in Life Together. What was true in the 30s and 40s is no less true today.

Many persons seek community because they are afraid of loneliness...Christians, too, who cannot cope on their own, and who in their own lives have had some bad experiences, hope to experience help with this in the company of other people. More often than not, they are disappointed. They then blame the community for what is really their own fault. The Christian community is not a spiritual sanatorium. Those who take refuge in community while fleeing from themselves are misusing it to indulge in empty talk and distraction, no matter how spiritual this idle talk and distraction may appear. In reality they are not seeking community at all, but only a thrill that will allow them to forget their isolation for a short time. It is precisely such misuse of community that creates the deadly isolation of human beings.

I've heard it said that if a person enters marriage in order to avoid being lonely, they will be a lonely married person. Another person may be the ingredient for fellowship, but not a cure for loneliness. 

Bonhoeffer views this, and I think rightly so, as trying to avoid coming face-to-face with who one is before God. Until we are willing to sit in isolation and have the reality of ourselves fully revealed over time, we will never allow God to cleanse us of our sins. 

Our sins can never be realized to their full extent at conversion. I don't believe we would be able to bear the weight of the knowledge of them in detail. That is something only the sinless Son of God could bear (and it took Him to death). Our sins, such as pride, wear so many disguises and so often appear so pious in their Sunday best.

Daily digging into the Word, daily seeking the heart of God in conversation with Him, daily and consciously humbling ourselves before God and acknowledging His wisdom when our own understanding would rise up against it. . . this is the solitude, the preparation that must be ongoing in order for one to be a healthy part of community.

What does that mean? Do we lock ourselves away from church until we are fit to enter? If we did that, every church door would close till the end of time.

In case this emphasis on solitude confirms any one's desire to pull out of church, Bonhoeffer continues with the other side of the coin:

Whoever cannot stand being in community should beware of being alone. You are called into the community of faith; the call was not meant for you alone. You carry your cross, you struggle, and you pray in the community of faith, the community of those who are called. You are not alone even when you die, and on the day of judgment you will be only one member of the great community of faith in Jesus Christ. If you neglect the community of other Christians, you reject the call of Jesus Christ, and thus your being alone can only become harmful for you.

There is an equal call in Biblical Christianity to individuals and to people. 

Individually, if you have been born again, God called you. No one else could have made that decision for you. It didn't matter whether you were in the "right church," had a good education. . . nothing else mattered. God's grace bent down and breathed life in your heart and you opened your eyes and believed.

Collectively, your new birth is not a matter just between you and God. When God lifted you from the spiritually dead, He placed you as part of His Body comprised of Christians like and unlike you from around the world. When a part of the Body is hurt, the whole Body is impacted. You cannot sin and not affect the Church. You are a part of a whole.

Why is this important to keep this balanced? 

On the one hand, we are responsible for our spiritual walk. Just as a heart is responsible for pumping blood and can't rely on the hand to help it, so we cannot rely on another person to make us strong spiritually. Another can use their gifts to encourage us, but it is up to us to make it real. That is where our solitude before God is crucial. 

On the other hand, if we lock ourselves away, if we begin to notice every weakness in our brothers and sisters at church and pull away, we are being led astray by pride. This pride is able to make our quiet time with God nothing but our own imagined piety patting us on the back. Instead of realizing we are one of many and are responsible in aiding the other parts of the body, we think of ourselves as essential to God and a unit unto ourselves.

Bonhoeffer summarizes:

Those who want community without solitude plunge into the void of words and feelings, and those who seek solitude without community perish in the bottomless pit of vanity, self-infatuation, and despair.

When we are listening regularly to God, we are more sensitive to our own failings and can humbly accept God's tools of change. We also receive of God's fullness and can therefore reach out in love to those in community. 

Thus, God provides our sense of belonging, whether or not others treat us as they should, and towards others we can share love unreservedly, strengthening their sense of belonging too.

This Week

I rarely get sick. This past week, however, I've been run over with a flu/cold bug that's been going around. I'm postponing my usual post to avoid the necessity for you to decode my ramblings. I'll either write later this week or next weekend. Thank you for your patience.

With Liberty and Justice for All

There are approximately 6.5 Billion people in the world

27 Million of them are slaves.

     80% of these are women.

     50% are under the age of 16.

Whether it is by kidnapping, selling children to pay off family debts, or falling for false job promises—nearly 1 million people every year are sold into slavery. This is not just happening in far off countries. This could be down the street from you.

“It happens here,” Theresa Flores says, “to white, middle-class teens who live in the suburbs. It’s easy to think that because you live in a nice neighborhood, you’re safe. Well, you’re not. We’ve let our guard down.”

Theresa was just 15 years old when she was blackmailed into the sexual slave trade in my own state of Michigan. The men threatened that they would harm her family. Her parents had no idea that every night she was picked up and forced into this life.

In other countries, parents do know, but have debts that cannot be paid. Selling a child to heavy labour or into sexual slavery is their only way to repay it.

In India, girls from the lower castes are taken as soon as they have their first period. In some places, they are taken as young as 9 or 10 years old.

In Afghanistan, powerful men openly have Bacha Bazis. This "is a practice recognized as sexual slavery and child prostitution^[1] in which prepubescent children and adolescents are sold to wealthy or powerful men for entertainment and sexual activities. This business thrives in northern Afghanistan, where many men keep them as status symbols."

Lest men get pictured as the brutes, a representative from Women at Risk International said it is not just men pimping women. Many times women oversee the enslaving other women. No one can point the finger at one gender.

I hope this makes you mad. It should!

God has told His people to be the agents to extend mercy to those in need.

He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does Yahweh require of you but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God? (Micah 6:8)

The authors of the Psalms were less naive than we are today. They knew the injustices around them. They knew the children offered up to Molech. They heard of the young girls and boys raped in temple prostitution.

Arise, Yahweh! Lift up your hand, O God. Do not forget the helpless. (Psalm 10:12)

Over and over in the Pentateuch and through the prophets, God tells His people to watch out for the helpless, to treat the refugees and foreigners with dignity and justice, to speak out for those unable to speak for themselves.

It is through us that God wants to work. We are His hands and feet in the world. We are the face of Christ to the dying. We must reach out with His love and show mercy. We will be held accountable for what we did with what we knew.

Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves,

   for the rights of all who are destitute.

Speak up and judge fairly;

   defend the rights of the poor and needy. (Proverbs 31:8-9)

The righteous care about justice for the poor, but the wicked have no such concern. (Proverbs 29:7)

Why them and not us? We have a responsibility for the very reason that we are not the oppressed, so we have a platform from which to help those who are. You and I have been spared for a reason.

What can we do?

First, pray.

Boaz Johnson, professor from North Park University in Chicago, explained at a recent conference that prayer is our first step and our most powerful weapon. If you want to do something without praying, this urge may originate from pride. Instead, begin by seeking God on behalf of the slaves, pleading with Him to save them, to send people to physically rescue them, to send people to share the Good News that will set their souls free, and to send people to mentor and love them as their wounds begin to heal.

At the same conference, Andrew Kooman (see below for information) reminded us that we need to keep focusing on Jesus or we will act out of hatred or just out of activism. We need to go back to the Source of love "to act justly" and righteously. Even the oppressors need God's saving grace.

Second, do what God shows you to do to help.

Why her and not you? Why him and not you? If it was your child, would you help? Don't wait till it is!

Get mad and do something! Know what's going on and pray!

People in Action:

International Justice Mission is a human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local governments to ensure victim rescue, to prosecute perpetrators and to strengthen the community and civic factors that promote functioning public justice systems.

Born to Fly International "does three great things: It shows our kids a wider world, raises support for kids who have too little, and gives the first contact for our kids to touch those who have so little.” ~Dr. Clive Calver, president, World Relief

Women at Risk International unites and educates women to create circles of protection and hope around women at risk through culturally sensitive, value-added intervention projects.
 

Andrew Kooman is a gifted writer and a compassionate faith-in-action Christian. Using the gifts God has given him, Andrew educates others on the truth of trafficking and goes to other countries to help those in need. His emphasis on re-focusing on Jesus and obeying gives Andrew a activism stemming from love.

Fitcher's Bird

For the first time in my life, I am reading through the Grimm Brother's Fairy Tales (I have to do some intellectual reading like this occasionally). I never realized how very gory some of their stories are. For example: Fitcher's Bird.

There once was a wizard, Fitcher, who would dress as a beggar. When a young woman would come to her door to give him bread, he had the power to touch her and she would leap into his bag. Once home, he would give her anything she wanted, but warned her she would die if she lost the egg he gave her or went into the forbidden room.

A family of three girls, one by one, got taken. The first two were caught having peeked into the room. The wizard sawed them into pieces and left them in the secret blood-soaked chamber with all the other murdered girls.

The third sister managed to enter the room, but avoided being caught. The wizard was then under her control. She managed to piece her sisters together and trick the wizard into carrying them, now alive, back to her parents. She escaped while he was gone by dressing in feathers like a bird. Then her brothers and friends trapped the wizard and his friends in the house and burned them alive.

Reading in the book of Proverbs, I am struck by the similarity of this story with the illustrations Solomon gave to his sons to entreat them to follow wisdom.

The adulterous wife and the lady fool are synonymous (fool in Hebrew means morally deficient...of course, this goes way beyond just adultery, but adultery is the pictures the teacher uses).

Wisdom too is pictured as a lady. This female imagery, I can only guess, is also an illustration. Each boy will grow up and pursue either one "lady" or the other. As natural as the pursuit of a woman to be his wife, so these personified women...Lady Wisdom and Lady Fool...will one or the other be the quest of his life.

Here is where the parallel to the fairy tale is striking.

Speaking of the adulterous or Lady Fool, he teaches...

Do not let your heart turn to her ways
   or stray into her paths.
Many are the victims she has brought down;
   her slain are a mighty throng.
Her house is a highway to the grave,
   leading down to the chambers of death. . . . .
   ...she says to those who lack judgment
'Stolen water is sweet;
   food eaten in secret is delicious!
But little do they know that the dead
      are there,
   that her guests are in the depths of
      the grave. (Proverbs 7:25-27; 9:17-18)

The resemblance between the fairy tale and the teachings of Solomon split here. In the story, the girls had no way to resist the path of wickedness. Their only hope was to outsmart him.

Solomon warns that action must be taken before the temptation comes knocking. DO NOT even step foot in her path, he warns his children. Stay away from her neighborhood. If you go near, you will be caught, outwitted, and destroyed. There is no way to escape unscathed.

Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the full armor of God, so that you will be able to stand firm against the schemes of the devil. (Ephesians 6:10-11, cf 1 Corinthians 6:18 and 2 Timothy 2:22)

We are not helpless slaves of fate unless we are still slaves of sin. If this is where you are, you were born in the wizard's bloody chamber and have no hope to excape from dying there...except one.