A Lenten Challenge

Listening to news and seeing what is happening around us, both in the United States and throughout the world, the earth and its inhabitants are in a very dark place.  Violence, disease, political, religious, and cultural wars continue to spread like Measles in Disneyland. Our human family is struggling to co-exist, one with another and we’re pushing our fragile planet to its limits.  The earth and all its diversity is struggling mightily to get our attention and we have fallen asleep, unwilling to hear the truth, amend our ways, and free our spirits to experience the joy that God would want us to know. Instead of doing something about it, we choose to close our eyes and continue to do the very things that, in the past, have been destructive and harmful to the earth and all that is in it.  Paul writes, “For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the Children of God…” Romans 8:19. I am not exactly sure who Paul is referencing when he refers to the ‘Children of God’, but I’m going to guess it’s not us. Instead, I think that he is talking about the kind of people who see the pain and struggle of this world and choose to do something about it.   

I have had many conversations about the condition of our world and the dark shadows that are hiding the light of Christ. In my conversations, I can feel the twin palls of indifference and helplessness covering our eyes and suffocating our spirits. How easy it is to turn off the news, disconnect from the world and disappear into our electronic games and allow sports and sporting events to distract and consume us so we don’t have to deal with the suffering around us. The cry of Jesus echoes through the generations, “Blind fools!” The more I reflect on these conversations, the more troubled and dissatisfied I become.  Are we to be counted among the Pharisees and scribes who have distorted a faith that does not choose to see the suffering around us, believing that our faithful connection to a worshiping community is all that is needed to find favor with God? If that is what we believe then perhaps we’ve earned the title, “blind fool!” I would count myself among the blind fools because I too want to close my eyes and detach from the world, but I don’t think that’s what Jesus meant when he sent us into the world with words and phrases such as, “Feed my sheep…” or the mandate, “Go and make disciples…” What about Matthew 25, “Truly I tell you, just as you did it to one of the least of these…you did it to me.” I think that Jesus is very clear as to what the job of a confessing Christian ought to be.  

As I continue to think about my role as a Christian in this world, I can conclude that I do have the freedom and the ability to insulate myself from the suffering of the world. I don’t have to listen to the radio, watch the nightly news, pour over timely blogs, or read the newspaper. I can choose to be blind to the violence in our world, the deterioration of our cities, the insidious presence of systematic racism, or the absence of justice in our world, or the painful presence of hatred and indifference that disrupts our life together. I can do this, but is that what Christians do?  It seems I have a choice, I can be someone who is making every effort to make a difference, no matter how large or small, or I can make my peace with the disparaging title, “blind fool?” I don’t know about you, but I do not relish being called a ‘blind fool’. 

As the lengthening of days mark the beginning of the season of Lent, I am challenged, and will challenge each of you, to discern where God is leading your heart today? As I have said many times before, find your passion and do something great, not for yourself, but for the world. This, I believe, is the more faithful response to the one who died on the cross so that the world could know resurrection. As a colleague wrote in a recent article, ‘we can’t take on the whole world, but we can do one small part and someone else can do the rest.’ Maybe it’s time to take this to heart. 

Prayer at the beginning of Lent: 

God, the suffering of the world is great, my heart cries out, but I don't know where to begin. I want to run away, insulate myself from the troubles of the world, but this isn't what Jesus would have done and it isn't what I should do either. Help me to believe that I can make a difference. Help me to see the one small thing I can do to bring Christ's light into the darkness around me. Thank you God, for showing me a better way. Amen.