During the Second World War, German paratroopers invaded the island of Crete. When they landed, the islanders (many of them simple farmers) resisted the powerful Germans using kitchen knives and machetes. The consequences were devastating. The residents of entire villages were lined up and shot.
Alexander Papaderous, was just six years old when the war started. His village was destroyed and he was imprisoned in a concentration camp. When the war ended, he became convinced his people needed to let go of the hatred the war had unleashed. To help the process, he founded an Institute for Peace and Understanding, near an air strip, that embodied the horrors and hatreds unleashed by the war.
One day, while taking questions at the end of a lecture, Alexander was asked, “What’s the meaning of life?” There was nervous laughter in the room. It was such a weighty question. He opened his wallet, took out a small, round mirror and held it up for everyone to see.
During the war he was just a boy when he came across a motorcycle wreck. The motorcycle had belonged to German soldiers. Alexander saw pieces of broken mirrors from the motorcycle lying on the ground. He tried to put them together but couldn’t, so he took the largest piece and scratched it against a stone until its edges were smooth and it was round. He used it as a toy, fascinated by the way he could use it to shine light into holes and crevices.
He kept that mirror with him as he grew up, and over time it came to symbolize something very important. It became a metaphor for what he might do with his life. He explained: “I am a fragment of a mirror whose whole design and shape I do not know. Nevertheless, with what I have I can reflect light into the dark places of this world–into the black places in the hearts of men–and change some things in some people. Perhaps others may see and do likewise. This is what I am about. This is the meaning of my life.” (adapted from Robert Fulgham, It Was On Fire When I Laid Down On It).
When Jesus was asked about the meaning of life, he said something similar. In Matthew 5:14-17, “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
We’ve begun this series, Life on Mission. Last week, we explored the power of simply connecting w/people. We walk past people all day long. We’re annoyed, people are always impeding our agenda. They’re slowing us down, we honk. They step ahead at the soda fountain, we reach around them. They wait on our table, we barely make eye contact. You mind your business, I’ll mind mine. You stay over there, I’ll stay over here. ** We’re talking about making revolutionary shift in way we see people… where people don’t “impede” our agenda… but actually “become” our agenda! **
Our missional question is: “How can I reflect God’s light into the dark spaces of God’s world that others might see the light of God’s glory?” You know so often we think, “I’m religious. That’s enough.” We think, “Well, I go to church. I read my Bible. I pray. I live a good life. I’m healthy and wealthy, I have a really good family, I love my wife/kids, I don’t make bad choices. I’m blessed. I attend Bible study. I tithe. I take my communion.”
Living on mission requires far more than merely being religious. Jesus wants us to project the light of his glory beyond ourselves into dark spaces. And sadly, we need a lot of help flipping the paradigm from just being religious to be a person on mission.
“You are the light of the world” “It’s not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” “I’ve not come to call the righteous, but sinners.” “If you only love those who love you, what reward will you get?” “I desire a people of mercy, and not just a bunch of sacrifices” “Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.”
One of the most compelling stories Jesus ever told challenges our concept of “neighbor.” Once when Jesus was teaching about priority of loving others, someone arrogantly wanted to justify himself, “Well, who is my neighbor?” Are they black? Are they an illegal? Are they unchurched? Are they straight? Are they Democrat or Republican? Are they clean? Do they drink heavy, smoke pot, or date girls who do? Are they Muslim? Are they needy?”
In Jesus day people asked, “Are they a Jew? Are they a Samaritan? Are they Gentile? Are they a tax collector? Are they a sinner?” In WWII people asked, “Are they Nazis?” In Jonah’s day they asked, “Are they Ninevites?”
In his book, Tim Harlow talks about a problem that’s even big than racism. He calls it “gracism.” Whereas racism is about the color of a person’s “skin,” gracism is about the color of a person’s “skin” + the color of their “sin.” Gracism is when I feel entitled/deserving of God’s grace, while denying it to others. It’s when we say, “My life matters to God… but someone else’s life doesn’t matter to God.”
The edge of this Life on Mission is that we don’t get to define who are neighbor is or isn’t. God does! Your neighbor is the person that disgusts you, enrages you, offends you, has wronged you, betrayed you, lied to you, or done evil. Your neighbor looks different, believes different, thinks different, acts different. Your neighbor is the person you justify judging, hating, blaming, condemning, and avoiding.
There was nothing more offensive then for Jesus to suggest that everyone is our neighbor. The only reason we can tolerate Jesus’ teaching is because we don’t really know who a Samaritan, or tax collector, or sinner was. We don’t realize how despicable these “dispicables” were to the average “fine upstanding religious Jewish man.”
You know the people of God, historically (read your Bible!) have often been ad ods with their neighbors. Look around the world. Did you hear about Collin Powell’s leaked email? All of Israel’s nukes are pointed at Iran? Through Jeremiah the prophet, God promised things would change between the people of God and their neighbors.
Jeremiah 31:34, “No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
You might say, “Oh pastor, that sounds wonderful, may the Lord come quickly.” What we don’t realize is that for God’s dream to be realized, we have to stop thinking of everyone as our enemies, and start dignifying them as our neighbors. Jesus is commanding us to go… and the first place we need to do is right next door, across the street, down the block, across town…
Luke 10:25-37: “25 On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 26 “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
27 He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” 28 “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
29 But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
30 In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. 31 A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. 32 So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. 33 But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. 34 He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. 35 The next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’
36 “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?” 37 The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.” Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
James 2:16 says, "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such a faith save him? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food and one of you says to him, 'Go. I wish you well. Keep warm and well-fed' but does nothing about his physical needs. What good is it?"
Apostle John is even more blunt. John 4:19-20, “We love because he first loved us. Whoever claims to love God yet hates a brother or sister is a liar. For whoever does not love their brother and sister, whom they have seen, cannot love God, whom they have not seen.”
Jesus always spoke in the most practical terms. Once he was teaching about who will inherit the kingdom of heaven. To some he said, “Come, take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world.” But to others he said, “Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”
What was the defining issue of eternity? In Matthew 25:40 Jesus says, “For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, 36 I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me. . . whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me. . . whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”
God has something in different in mind for our neighbors than we often do! Jeremiah 31:34, “No longer will they teach their neighbor, or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest,” declares the Lord. “For I will forgive their wickedness and will remember their sins no more.”
I don’t want you walking out of here a guilt trip. Jesus is not giving us a checklist—“To get to heaven I gotta serve at the homeless shelter, the breadline, the hospital, good will, the prison, the nursing home, the orphanage. . .” No, if you want earn your way to heaven, you gotta be perfect like your heavenly father. You gotta go sell everything you have and give it to the poor. You can’t earn own salvation.
That’s not what this conversation is even about! It’s about a paradigm shift… its about caring for more for just your own salvation, but caring about whether others have salvation/grace. It’s about Living Life on Mission. Your neighbors are your mission! And your neighbors are everyone you’ve been passing by all these years!
. . . . . . .
Let me share a true story. Jetlag can be brutal, and Tony Campolo had just arrived in Hawaii; he was hungry and he couldn’t sleep. It was 3:00 a.m., though, and the only place open was a grungy dive in an alley in downtown Waikiki. As Tony sat there at the counter munching on his donut and sipping his coffee, in walked eight or nine prostitutes just finished with their night's work. They all sat down at the counter and Tony found himself uncomfortably surrounded by a whole group of smoking, swearing hookers, recounting their night on the street.
He was finishing up his coffee, planning to make a quick getaway, when he heard the woman next to him say to her friend, "You know what? Tomorrow's my birthday. I'm gonna be 39." Her friend replied nastily: "So what do you want from me? A birthday party? Huh? You want me to get a cake, and sing happy birthday to you?"
The first woman said, "Aw, come on, why do you have to be so mean? Why do you have to put me down? I'm just saying it's my birthday. I don't want anything from you. I mean, why should I have a birthday party? I've never had a birthday party in my whole life. Why should I have one now?"
Tony suddenly had an idea. Instead of running off, he sat and waited until the women left, and then he asked the guy at the counter, "Do they come in here every night?"
"Yeah," he answered. "The one right next to me," he asked, "she comes in every night?" "Yeah," he said, "that's Agnes. Yeah, she's here every night. She's been coming here for years. Why do you want to know?"
"Because she just said that tomorrow is her birthday. What do you think? Do you think we could maybe throw a little birthday party for her right here in the diner?"
A smile crept over the man's face. "That's great," he says, "yeah, that's great. I like it." So they made their plans. Tony said he'd be back at 2:30 the next morning with some decorations and the man, whose name was Harry, said he'd make a cake. At 2:30 the next morning, Tony returned with decorations and a sign made of big pieces of cardboard that said, "Happy Birthday, Agnes!" Together, they decorated the diner from one end to the other. Harry had gotten the word out on the streets about the party and by 3:15 it seemed that every prostitute in Honolulu was in the place.
At 3:30 on the dot, the door swung open and in walked Agnes and her friend. Everybody yelled together: "Happy Birthday, Agnes!" Agnes was absolutely flabbergasted. Her mouth fell open, her knees started to buckle, she almost fell over. And then the birthday cake with all the candles was carried out, and that's when she totally lost it and began weeping.
Harry, who was not used to seeing a prostitute cry, gruffly mumbled, "Blow out the candles, Agnes. Cut the cake." So Agnes pulled herself together and blew them out. Everyone cheered and yelled, "Cut the cake, Agnes, cut the cake!"
But Agnes looked down at the cake and, without taking her eyes off it, slowly said, "Look, Harry, is it all right with you if...I mean, if I don't...I mean, what I want to ask, is it OK if I keep the cake a little while? Is it all right if we don't eat it right away?" Harry didn't know what to say so he shrugged and said, "Sure, if that's what you want to do. Keep the cake. Take it home if you want."
Agnes got off her stool, picked up the cake, and carried it high in front of her like it was the Holy Grail. Everybody watched in stunned silence and when the door closed behind her, nobody seemed to know what to do. They look at each other. They look at Tony.
So Tony got up on a chair and said, "What do you say that we pray?" And there they were in a hole-in-the-wall greasy spoon, half the prostitutes in Honolulu, at 3:30 a.m. listening to Tony Campolo as he prayed for Agnes.
When he finished, Harry leaned over, and with a trace of hostility in his voice, he said, "Hey, you never told me you were a preacher. What kind of church do you belong to anyway?" Just the right words came. Tony replied, "I belong to a church that throws birthday parties for prostitutes at 3:30 in the morning."
Harry thought for a moment, and in a mocking way said, "No you don't. There's no church like that. If there was, I'd join it. Yep, I'd join a church like that."
Tony then said, “There is a church like that, Harry - started by a man who did just that. Let me tell you about Jesus…”
. . . . . . .
What kind of church do we want Lakeside to be… What’s God want?
What kind of Christian do you want to be… What’s God want?
What is meaning of your life? Is it as Jesus said, to be a “light shining in darkness?” This week groups are unpacking what it means to “serve” and “love” as our mission/purpose in God’s world. Are you open to this?