So it doesn't take long to drive ourselves crazy thinking about the ills of our world. The poverty, oppression, greed and destruction weigh heavily on those of us who have seen it first hand - and many of us just can't seem to "let it go", (no matter how many times we're called social gospel preachers)
But the frustration from the complexity of it all is only matched by the simplicity of the solution and the impossibility of its' execution .
The solution, as we have known for centuries is a radical social structure: "all giving all for all". Anything less will be bandaids.
Before you call me a communist, or at very least a socialist, think about it. I didn't say "all forced to give all to all".
All giving all for all is a statement of love, mercy, humility and justice, and is only possible in the context of true freedom. It erases the word "deserve" from the vocabulary and replaces it with its' root: serve.
But every social structure humans initiate will be tainted by selfishness. I am still reeling from a comment made to me the other day: "if people could make money feeding the poor, it would be done- guaranteed". If that doesn't sum up our pitiful existence, I don't know what does.
Here is my rant; we evangelicals are constantly harping about works and their uselessness in approaching God, but we refuse to translate that principle into our everyday life now. We still operate under the "if you work hard you deserve" structure. If we really believe Jesus is king and took all good and bad "deserving" upon himself, then why do we still operate as if he isn't/didn't?
You don't think so? Think about giving your next paycheque to a lazy person.
Our immediate reaction is to say "that's ridiculous- everyone would just sit back and wait, and society would dissolve itself". Just another example of how we just don't get the gospel.
(oh ya, and read Philippians 2...)
~~~~
Tim Bailey
Serious Social Restructuring
Friday, April 18, 2008 | Posted by Tim at 10:38 AM
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
" Why not give your next pay cheque to a lazy person." Well, in a sense I do, well atleast part of it to a church.( Sorry, that was a cheap shot ) I struggle with some evangelical churches unwilling to partner with existing social structures already functioning in the community, all because they don't fly a " christian." There is so much more we could be doing, it's like we default to " well, the poor will always be with us ", or at the end of the day, " there will be a new earth."But you're right we don't just give, we like the thought of being a good steward...some return on our investment. Jesus wasn't a steward, he was a radical scandalous giver...giving absolutely everything. And he's still givin'.
... I have a headache @ 9 pm of a Friday night because I've been reading Jeffrey Sachs' 'End of Poverty' and Peter Senge's 'Fifth Discipline' today ... how are we going to break this down? Thanks T ...
Don, that's some kind of light reading. You'll have nightmares reading that stuff.
Post a Comment