You’ll Know Them by Their Love

First a little update on my husband’s situation with cancer.  He has been through weeks of twice a day radiation treatments, and once a week chemo treatments, and this cancer has proved to be very stubborn.  While the treatments stopped the tumor from growing, they did not cause it to back off.  We are meeting with a head and neck surgeon tomorrow to see what can be done now.  The tumor is on the left side of his nose.  The treatments were so harsh, as the oncologists were determined to beat back this tumor, that my poor husband’s mouth and throat have been burned raw.  He also has lost a lot of weight and is now very weak.  He had to have a feeding tube inserted in his tummy.  This has not been fun, that’s for sure.  All of you who pray, I ask for prayers for my husband, and for me, too.  I like to lean into the support of prayer at times like this.

♦

Now on to other things.  As the debate rages on about health care, I’ve been thinking a lot about what it means to be a Christian.  There are billions of people around the world who call themselves “Christians,” but not everyone who claims the name can in return be claimed as a Christian.  It is very easy to label yourself a Christian, but quite different to live as, and be a Christian.  There is a reason that being a Christian is described as following the “Narrow Way.” 

The Way is narrow not only because there are few that find it, and fewer that follow it, but because the Way is deceptively simple, or “narrow” in focus.  The Way of the Christian is to love others in the same way that Christ loves us.  In other words to love others by laying down our lives for them.  The Way is the way of compassion.  Like the Good Samaritan, the Christian lays down time, money and talent for the sake of other’s need. 

Matthew 25: 31-46 illustrates the difference between those who are following the narrow way, and others who are going the way of the world. 

   I was hungry and you fed me,
   I was thirsty and you gave me a drink,
   I was homeless and you gave me a room,
   I was shivering and you gave me clothes,
   I was sick and you stopped to visit,
   I was in prison and you came to me.’

‘I’m telling the solemn truth: Whenever you did one of these things to someone overlooked or ignored, that was me—you did it to me.’  (The Message version).

 This little pericape is one of the judgment stories.  All is decided for eternity by whether or not we care about others, and act on their behalf.  How we respond to the needs of the least ones in our midst determines how God responds to us.  What I’ve discovered in my reading of scripture is that God could care less whether or not a person recognizes Christ, or calls him or herself a Christian.  It is how you live and respond to others in the Spirit of Christ that matters.  As I’ve written before, those who enter heaven are those who know how to live there already, by practicing here on earth.  Our work as Christians is to be about building the kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven. 

The Spirit of Christ is available to everyone at all times.  The Spirit of Christ cannot be contained in a Church, or controlled by religion, and goes freely everywhere and in every time.  And so people anywhere can be filled with the Spirit of Christ if they are open and accepting of that Spirit.  The availability of God’s Spirit has always been the case down through every age, from the first day of Creation and into all our tomorrows.  The person who is open and accepting of the Spirit of Christ is in this sense a Christian, whether or not that person ever knows Jesus the Christ by name.  In other words, they may not call themselves Christians, and might even be angry if someone else called them Christians, but they are living the Narrow Way, and pleasing God. 

Sadly there are many more so-called Christians who claim to know Jesus, and call themselves Christians, but have never been open to or accepted the Spirit of Christ.  They have hearts of stone, and cannot be moved.  They don’t know the meaning of compassion.  They might do acts of charity, but they don’t understand compassion.  They are the ones who walk by the wounded man alongside the road, and don’t even see him.  (Read my old post).

So, how do we know the Christians?  As the song says:  “They will know we are Christians by our love.”  Christian love is compassion in action.  It is taking active care of the least ones amongst us:  feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty (wells), housing the homeless, clothing the naked, caring for the sick (health care), and even caring about those who have wronged us (visiting those in prison).  Most of us know the “Corporal Works of Mercy.”  Another way to think about it is that Christians are to be Bread, blessed, broken and given away for others. 

Christians are also best revealed by the fruit of the Spirit.  You see, when you are open to and accepting of the Spirit of Christ there are certain signs that appear in your life.  Such signs as the following:  love, hope, peace, patience, kindness, gentleness, generosity, self-control, acceptance, forgiveness, etc.  And the following behaviors are signs that a so-called Christian is not in fact a Christian:  prejudice or hate in any of its forms; despair (doom and gloom), negativity; violence, hostility, and abusive behaviors of any form; being disruptive and interrupting others, over-talking others; being mean, rude or cruel; being pushy or domineering, bullying; being stingy, grasping, tight-fisted or greedy; being demanding; being impulsive, quick to take offence, and easily roused to rage; being judgmental, unforgiving and resentful; disdaining other people and looking down on others.  Watch people at the town hall meetings, and see if you can pick out the Christians in their midst. 

God, through the Spirit of Christ seeks people who will be with God on the side of life for all.  God is constantly challenging us to seek life, and not just for ourselves.  Christians are those who are on the side of life.  We are constantly choosing between life and death; between building up the  kingdom of God on earth as it is in heaven, or building up the kingdoms of men.  Just because someone goes to Church, wears a shiny cross, sings songs of praise, and shouts “Praise the Lord” all the time, does not make him or her a Christian.  It is not enough to confess that Jesus is Lord, and then go about being mean, rude, stingy, greedy, etc.  As it says in scripture, it is not enough to call Jesus “Lord, Lord” and then to not do what he says.  What Jesus says is this:  Love others.  Be Bread, blessed and broken and given away for others.  Lay down your life — your time, your money, your talents — for others.