Loving the Least of These

This is a post that I started on Sunday, and just got the chance to finish.

This morning in church I found myself feeling very uncomfortable, as I sat in my comfy little pew. I couldnt exactly pin-point what was wrong, until the sermon started that just so happened to be about missions. Then it hit me, as I sat there looking around the auditorium, seeing all the fake smiles, the dazed stares, the bored minds, is this what church has become? Really? It seemed so fake to me, it took everything within me to engage in the worship. Maybe its culture shock, I dont know, but it just doesnt seem like this is what Jesus had in mind. Get up early on Sunday morning, go to church, sing songs, obey all the rules, pretend to have it all together when someone asks how you are...this is church? Im having a hard time believing that it truly is. To me, true worship looks a little more like Gods children building a house for the homeless, or giving someone food who has none, or loving on a little orphaned kiddo, not sitting in an air conditioned building, in a comfy pew, pretending..faking my way through "church". Shouldnt we be doing something instead of just sitting around? Maybe this is why I've grown to love missions, I love seeing faith in action, not words. I love being in Honduras because everywhere you look people are doing something, something worthwhile, thats going to make a difference. This is what I think Jesus had in mind. I love my church, dont get me wrong, theres a lot of good things going on at my church, but sometimes I just wonder if the church in general is cheapening the cross by the way we represent it to the outside world. I dont think people who come to visit our churches are really going to believe that we have faith if we are just sitting around, pretending to have it all together, and proclaiming the gospel with our lips. We're living in a world that is ready to see change, ready to see people taking action, we need people to do something rather than just talk about doing something. Shouldnt the church be the first ones to step up and take that action?

'Dear friends, do you think you'll get anywhere in this if you learn all the right words but never do anything? Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, "Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!" and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn't it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?
I can already hear one of you agreeing by saying, "Sounds good. You take care of the faith department, I'll handle the works department."
Not so fast. You can no more show me your works apart from your faith than I can show you my faith apart from my works. Faith and works, works and faith, fit together hand in glove.'
- James 14-18


- Sam